University of Regina Printing Services adds Kodak NexPress 2500, brings color jobs in-house

By Bob Neubauer

With just a two-color offset press and a Xerox DocuColor 2045 for producing color work, University of Regina Printing Services found itself outsourcing a lot of jobs. Its equipment was just not up to the task of producing the high-quality color brochures and marketing material needed by the Regina, Saskatchewan-based university.

Manager Judy Peace wanted to change that.

“When I saw how much of the university’s work we were outsourcing, I thought, ‘this is all stuff that could be done in-house, and I think we could serve the university better by being able to do it here,’ “ recalls Peace.

So she built a business case showing the savings the university could reap by getting a digital color press and printing that work in-house. As a result, at the end of August, the 12-employee in-plant installed a Kodak NexPress 2500 SE digital press. At the same time, the shop replaced two aging Xerox Nuvera 100s with a Ricoh Pro 1357, and added a Ricoh Pro C651 for walk-up color jobs.

One reason the in-plant picked the NexPress, Peace says, was that it has a fifth imaging unit, allowing the shop to add Kodak Dimensional Coating to printed pieces, or to add a fifth color. The in-plant is upgrading the press to the SX platform, which offers smaller toner particles for better quality and durability, she says.

Peace and her team brought some typical jobs and their own paper to the demo and ran them on a NexPress.

“We were so impressed with how smooth the jobs went,” she says. “The NexPress just flew through the jobs with no problem. We were really, really impressed with the front-to-back registration. The perfecting is perfect.”

Since adding the NexPress, the in-plant is now able to offer customers shorter runs, printed on demand, reducing the need to warehouse long runs of brochures, flyers, view books and annual reports, as was done in the past.

Peace intends to promote the NexPress to university departments and local designers by showing them what the press is capable of doing. An open house is also in the plans.

In addition to this new hardware, the in-plant is currently setting up and testing EFI PrintSmith Site Web-to-print software. This will make it much easier for customers to order business cards, stationery, course packs and other items.

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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.

NexPress Lets University of Regina Bring Color Jobs In-house