Pima County Adds Digital Color, Inserting

As David Weber sees it, one of the most useful services he provides as print supervisor for Pima County, Arizona, is guiding customers back to reality when they come to his in-plant with plans for extravagant printed pieces. He helps them figure out how much color or metallic ink coverage they really need, scaling their projects back to something more affordable—even if that means less revenue for his chargeback-supported shop.

“We’ve got to go with what’s best for the tax dollar,” remarks Weber, pointing out that outside printers would simply take the money and run, with no print counseling provided. “Once you take care of people like that, they keep coming back.”

And those, in effect, are his goals: taking care of customers and getting them to return next time. Two recent upgrades at the Tucson-based in-plant were done with those objectives firmly in mind.

To address customers’ desire for top-notch color quality, the eight-employee print shop replaced its Xerox DocuColor 260 with a Ricoh Pro C751EX color printer. And to save them money and the hassle of hand-stuffing envelopes, the in-plant added a Neopost DS-200 folder/inserter.

The 75-ppm Ricoh Pro C751EX boasts impressive resolutions of 4,800 dpi using Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser technology, which delivers tighter registration and more accurate fill for sharper text and smoother graphics. Sensors on the transfer belt monitor CMYK values and recalibrate color density on the fly. Customers, Weber says, appreciate this offset-quality color for their brochures, handouts, bookmarks, business cards, posters, annual reports and other projects.

“The Ricoh is pretty impressive,” Weber says. “The registration is awesome and the colors are spot on.”

With the new Neopost DS-200 inserter/folder, Weber has been gradually convincing departments that it’s more cost effective to let the in-plant do their inserting rather than having their staffs do it by hand.

“They have us print something, and they want to fold it and insert it themselves,” he says. By showing them what this is costing them in time, and pointing out the in-plant’s pricing discounts for doing the full job, from printing to inserting, he is winning converts and saving them money in the process.

“We’re winning them over slowly but surely,” Weber says. “We just keep finding new ways of helping.”

As IPG was going to press, the in-plant was installing a new Morgana AutoCreaser Pro 50 to stop toner from cracking on the folds and also to handle perforating. The print shop had been using a Rosback perforator and a Tech-ni-Fold Tri-Creaser, but the Morgana equipment will enable faster turnaround and can provide multiple scores on a piece.

“That will be an improvement,” Weber says.

Also on the horizon, he adds, is an automated business card slitter.