New Printer Brings In-plant Recognition

For nearly seven years, University Printing Services (UPS) at California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), relied heavily on an HP Designjet 5500 printer. Still, a number of wide-format job requests had to be outsourced, due to size, complexity or the need for alternative media for outdoor applications.

“The university was faced with the decision to move the print shop forward or to stay with basic services and outsource everything else,” says Emmit Williams, assistant vice president of Contracts and Procurement. “As a business, our choice was to stagnate or evolve and grow. The university decided to back UPS, and our senior administration resolved to boost our printing capacity and capabilities.”

As a result, the four-employee in-plant recently installed an HP Designjet L25500 printer to meet the campus’ growing demand for large-format printed output.

“The HP Designjet L25500 printer saves us money, time and labor, but what it really does is open up a whole world of possibilities when it comes to the size and variety of the jobs we can fulfill,” says Francisco Quinonez, assistant director of procurements, who manages all UPS operations.

The new printer allows the in-plant to print on a variety of media, from recyclable HDPE banners to a range of gloss and matte photo papers. This increases the amount of work handled by the in-plant, which is already responsible for meeting about 90 percent of the campus’ printing needs, from course outlines and exams to banners, signage and business cards.

Pairing the HP Designjet L25500 with production-oriented operating software from Caldera streamlines workflow and simplifies color management. The printer also offers a dual take-up roll reel so there is little user intervention required for big jobs, and customers can easily replace print heads.

Along with easy operation, the HP Designjet L25500 is designed with the environment in mind so that both customers and print shop employees enjoy a workshop free from many of the health and safety considerations of eco-solvent-based printers. HP Latex Inks require no hazard labels or special ventilation equipment and produce odor-free prints that are ready to use right out of the printer.

The success of the in-plant has not gone unnoticed beyond the campus. CSUDH is a finalist in the Synergy Project, a university-wide project among all CSU system campuses to identify cost savings and secure the right to assist in printing at the CSU Chancellor’s Office in Long Beach. Another university approached Williams to learn how it might replicate some of the success in its own campus print operations. Williams places a good deal of the credit for this attention on the new printer.

“The HP Designjet L25500 Printer really put us above other campuses for the Synergy Project, and people both on and off campus recognize the quality product we can turn out with the HP technology,” he says. “It has played a huge role in our growth and success.”