State of Colorado Adds Printing, Inserting Equipment

Mary Lowrey and Lee Hull operate the new Ricoh Pro C9200 digital color press.

Looking to replace aging equipment, the State of Colorado’s Integrated Document Solutions (IDS) operation has upgraded its technology to meet its evolving services. The 58-employee in-plant replaced its remanufactured Kodak NexPress SX3300 digital color press with a Ricoh Pro C9200 digital color press. The operation also installed two Ricoh Pro 8320 MICR monochrome sheetfed printers, and two Neopost DS-1200 G4i mail inserters.

According to Mike Lincoln, Northern Regional Manager, the in-plant homed in on Ricoh equipment due to the quality of service.

“[Ricoh] has really been a solutions partner for us,” Lincoln praises. “[Ricoh] is really partnering with us to help us be a better in-plant.” The in-plant also has a Ricoh InfoPrint 5000 VP color continuous-feed inkjet press and a Ricoh Pro C7100 cut-sheet color printer.

The first device to be installed of the many purchases, the Ricoh Pro C9200, prints at 115 ppm and produces photo-like images with 2,400x4,800-dpi resolutions.

“From a capability standpoint, it may seem like a step down,” Lincoln says. “But from a productivity standpoint, and [for] the type of work that we do, it was actually a very good move for us.”

Typical jobs being printed on the C9200 include brochures, posters, books, and business cards.

The Ricoh Pro 8320 multifunction production printers can print up to 136 ppm on stocks up to 350 gsm. According to Lincoln, the foremost reason for this installation is the state printer’s focus on transactional work.

“The majority of the work that we do for our customer base, and 90% of the work we do overall, is transactional in nature,” Lincoln reports. “For the transactional parts that we can’t produce on the inkjet [press], the work will go on the 8320s.” The devices will also be used for permit and shell work on custom-manufactured cut-sheet stock, he adds.

One of the two Neopost DS-1200 G4i mail inserters installed at Colorado’s Integrated Document Solutions operation.

The Neopost DS-1200 inserters are not used for much outside of basic transactional work, explains Lincoln. The previous mail inserters needed an upgrade, he says, and the Neopost inserters provide a stable, reliable platform to optimize workflow. They are easy to operate and will store job profiles, he adds.

“The installation of the two new inserters really offloaded some of the work from the older machines, increasing the operation's throughput,” Lincoln explains. “On the mail side, that’s where [the new inserters] helped the most, because we’ve seen an overall reduction of volume but an increase in the number of jobs that we do.”

Mike Lincoln: “Bringing that new equipment in increases our relevance to our customer base, giving us flexibility to meet their changing needs."

Overall, the installations have allowed the in-plant, “to consolidate and [improve] workflow, with being able to utilize the same digital front end across the entire [print] platform.”

The new equipment been extremely beneficial to the in-plant, according to Lincoln, in allowing it to offer more services and options than previously.

“Bringing that new equipment in increases our relevance to our customer base, giving us flexibility to meet their changing needs,” he explains. “We needed machines that were fast, and essentially easy to transition from one job to another.”

As IDS works through its busiest season, Lincoln is still developing plans for future installations.

“We’re looking to replace some other equipment, as well as evaluate software solutions that will increase operations, and have these new solutions in place before the end of the calendar year,” Lincoln says.