Two weeks ago in Corvallis, Oregon, Oregon State University Printing & Mailing Services held an open house that brought about 250 faculty and staff into the in-plant. With the theme “Fresh Ink,” the event included a guided tour, a close look at the new inkjet press in action, food, giveaways, and prize drawings.
“It was a wonderful opportunity to showcase our shop,” says Associate Director Judy Bankson. “This is the first big tour with all of our new equipment that was installed last summer and early fall.”
That new equipment includes a new Konica Minolta AccurioJet KM-1, a Ricoh Pro T6251 UV LED flatbed printer, a Colex Sharpcut automated cutter, a Duplo DBM 600 bookletmaker, and an Eclipse Mini+ digital diecutter and laminator to support the shop’s booming sticker business.
Visitors followed printed arrow floor graphics through the front office, where they met staff, saw a display of the in-plant’s products and awards, and enjoyed snacks and coffee. They moved through the conference room where they could collect some of the monthly stickers the in-plant produces. Then they entered the production floor, where staff demonstrated the equipment.
“The best part to me was all the staff getting involved showing visitor’s around and answering questions,” says Bankson.
The all-day event brought a range of people from departments like the College of Health, University Marketing, Veterinarian Medicine, College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (CEOAS), Western Oregon University, University of Oregon, and the OSU Foundation.
“We had plenty of giveaways from posters, notebooks, stickers, buttons, and our Benny Beaver phone holder,” she says. “Everyone could enter a drawing to win our custom-printed and cut box filled with items all printed in our shop. It was filled with playing cards, stickers, socks, cups, buttons and other trinkets.
“Another fun conversation piece was our custom-printed and cut tables,” she continues. “There was plenty of excitement around those. I image we will see lots of orders for those.”
Related story: Oregon State Joins Higher-Ed Inkjet Club
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.