New York Shop Turns To Ricoh For Color

By Bob Neubauer

Dale Zipkin knew his shop needed a better color printer. The 10-employee in-plant for the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) union was using older color devices from Canon and Konica Minolta, but maintenance problems were hindering productivity. Splitting jobs between the two printers wasn't working out either.

"We couldn't run jobs together because they came out totally different colors," says Zipkin, manager of Printing and Mail Services. He had his eye on a new Konica Minolta device, but when the in-plant's distributor, IKON Office Solutions, was purchased by Ricoh last year, everything changed. Suddenly Zipkin found himself looking at a deal on the new Ricoh Pro C900 that was too good to pass up. The Latham, N.Y., in-plant installed the new 90-page-per-minute color printer in April. Life has been much better since then, Zipkin says.

"The quality is consistent," he praises. "We can just churn those jobs out now with a degree of confidence."

The C900 was put to the test recently when the shop had to reproduce the NYSUT budget for next-day distribution.

"It went through without a hitch," Zipkin says.

With resolutions of 1,200x1,200 dpi, the C900 produces very good quality work, Zipkin adds. Its sensors adjust and compensate for minor color shifts in the imaging process. The C900 is able to reproduce NYSUT's Pantone 293 color without a problem, Zipkin adds.

The shop is using the device to print business cards, post cards, booklets and other color jobs with runs too short for its four-color Heidelberg Quickmaster DI or its two-color Heidelberg QM-46.

Last year the in-plant added a 36? Canon imagePROGRAF iPF710 wide-format printer, and Zipkin reports that it has brought in a lot of new business.

"Everybody wants posters now," he remarks.

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Bob Neubauer Author's page

Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.