Graph Expo: A Show for In-plants

The strong turnout of in-plants at Graph Expo took me by surprise. With all the travel cutbacks of recent years, I thought we'd have trouble filling seats at the roundtable luncheon we hosted; we ended up with a packed room. I could hardly turn a corner at the show without bumping into an in-plant manager.

This is a great sign for the in-plant industry—travel funds are loosening up again, and in-plants are aggressively checking out new equipment with plans to buy it. I asked a dozen or so attendees of our roundtable for their observations. Several revealed they came to the show to investigate the latest inkjet technologies, which they see as a future competitor to toner.

John Sarantakos, of the University of Oklahoma, was among those impressed by Xanté's technology demo of the 42˝ Excelagraphix 4200, which uses Memjet print heads to print at very fast speeds on a range of substrates. "Being able to go direct to foam or gator board would be a huge upgrade for us," said Sarantakos, who was also looking at digital envelope presses.

Cathy Skoglund, of Arizona State University, said her shop is strongly considering buying the HP Designjet L25500 wide-format latex printer she saw at the show, as well as an Imprintor pad/mug/pen printer. Skoglund was one of three managers I talked to with firm plans to buy a digital press after Graph Expo. She intends to get a seven-color HP Indigo 5500. Amtrak's Michael Smedberg was there seeking a replacement for his shop's Xerox iGen3, and was examining iGen4, Kodak NexPress and MGI Meteor presses. Steve Weigel, of Iowa State University, was sizing up the latest NexPress, intending to upgrade in the next year or so.

Another NexPress user, Karen Meyers, of Michigan Farm Bureau, spent time in the Kodak booth, viewing samples of Dimensional Printing and getting ideas. "We realized we are not using the machine to the extent of its capabilities," she told me.

Meyers also looked closely at collator/stitcher/trimmer products from Duplo, Standard and others, with plans to purchase in 2012. Several others also intended to buy bindery equipment they saw at the show. Weigel's shop at ISU went out for bid on a score/perf machine after inspecting this gear at the show. Similarly, Rachel Bower of Grand Rapids Community College examined cutters from Colter & Peterson and Challenge with the intention of buying one this fiscal year. She also checked out replacements for the shop's tape binder and tabletop laminator. Robert Pettway, of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee's in-plant, was closely inspecting integrated inline envelope wraps from Bell + Howell and Pitney Bowes, as well as document tracking and online proofing solutions.

A couple of managers were looking at products to help them expand into new services. Boyd Cranford, from Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland, scored a software deal from EasyPurl at the show, in preparation for a PURL project at that will combine an e-mail blast and postcard mailing. And Gerry Pinela, with the City of Torrance, Calif., was gathering data on color production scanners, which he plans to purchase this fiscal year to convert paper documents into digital form.

"Since our city is looking to convert to an electronic agenda, I do not want to be left out of the process," he told me. Smart thinking.