Bindery Upgrades at Richardson ISD Save Time, Money

There are two certainties when it comes to equipment usage by Print Services at the Richardson Independent School District (ISD). One, the operation utilizes its machines as long as possible. Two, the Richardson, Texas, shop is adept at fully exploiting all the bells and whistles the equipment can offer.

The six-employee operation produces 11 million copies annually for its constituency, which covers roughly 39,000 students across 53 schools. Its printing arsenal includes a trio of Xerox high-speed printers, one Xerox Color 550 and two small Ryobi 3302 presses.

In October 2016, the shop took delivery of several critical pieces of equipment to better serve the school district: a Standard Horizon SPF-2000A in-line bookletmaker with four VAC-1000 collating towers, in addition to a CRF-362 creaser/folder. One of the pieces retired as a result of the acquisition was a 15-year-old C.P. Bourg collator, as replacement parts had become increasingly difficult to find, according to Daniel Najera, Print Services manager.

Tom Huth shows off the in-plant's new Standard Horizon CRF-362 folder/creaser.

“The Horizon bookletmaker/collating system is all one piece,” Najera says. “When we do a corner stitch with the Horizon, it’s all done in-line. So on a stacking job, it goes to the stacking tray, and if you’re collating and stapling in a corner, it comes out the same finished piece that the collator staple fold comes out. That way, it bypasses the dual stitch and folder, which is nice, because we don’t have to break down the machine, which can be time consuming.”

Another nice feature, according to Najera, is the computer screen operation, which enables it to set the machine to different sizes. “With the other collating system, we had to break loose each piece and change the sizing,” he adds.

Print Services turned to its machine technicians for intel as to the best solutions available during the vetting process. Najera’s shop paid a visit to a pair of shops, including the Dallas ISD, which was using just the bookletmaker, and another plant that has the setup Print Services now employs. All the feedback Najera received echoed similar sentiments: Standard Horizon gear provided the durability and quality he sought.

“Once Standard installed the machines, they were amazed at the number of different setups we had,” Najera notes. “We utilize everything it offers, from corner stitching to bookletmaking. We had a full-color process job where each campus gets a certain amount of booklets, and we use the collator to count out the sets for each campus. It’s really nice to have.”

The CRF-362 creaser/folder addressed a particular pain point for Najera’s shop: dealing with static electricity in jobs that came off the photocopier for folding. Print Services’ incumbent folder could not handle the static electricity, and the Xerox copier output couldn’t be folded at an acceptable rate of speed.

“Before, I needed to take anything that needed to be creased, like heavy stock, and get it scored by an outside vendor,” Najera says. “The CRF-362 saves us time and money. And we got the perforating device as well, where before we’d need to send jobs, like tickets, to a letterpress shop to get them perforated.”

In addition to tickets, Print Services provides output including directories, manuals, student handbooks and classroom materials. The collator has enabled the shop to print full graduation programs with four different color covers that represent each high school’s official color. The new system cuts the collating time in half, according to Najera.

“We’re extremely pleased with the machines,” Najera concludes. “The air assist function on the collator doesn’t compare to any [other] I’ve seen. The blowing separates the sheets and makes it so easy to feed, with no misfeeds or double sheets coming through.”