University of Texas Installs Five-color Press
As one of the largest universities in the country, The University of Texas at Austin has a great need for four-color printed materials. Yet although UT Document Solutions has several offset presses—including a two-color, 40˝ perfector and a Heidelberg GTO—the 51-employee in-plant wasn’t capable of printing half-size four-color work. So for many years, all of that work was being farmed out.
“We had been outsourcing nearly $600,000 worth of four-color work” per year, laments Director Richard Beto. This was clearly not sustainable.
So in December, Document Solutions installed a new five-color 24x29˝ Komori Lithrone SX29 press with a coater. The six-up device boasts an automatic plate-changing system, closed-loop color control and auto ink key setting. With a maximum speed of 16,000 sheets per hour, the press was unlike anything employees had ever seen when the shop first fired it up.
“Initially, we had quite a crowd of employees checking it out,” remarks Jeff Blue, printing manager.
The press’s first job was 90,000 four-over-four 8-1⁄2x11˝ flyers with an aqueous coating. Since then, the in-plant has printed large runs of brochures, post cards, pocket folders and booklets—runs far too long to print on the shop’s Xerox Color 1000 digital press.
“The amount of work we get from the university justified the six-up device versus a four-up device,” notes Blue. Plus, he anticipates bringing in state government work.
“We’re in the state capital, and we can get some very large print runs from the state agencies that are here in town,” he notes. At press time, he was working on a quote for 1 million maps for Texas Parks and Wildlife, which the in-plant was subsequently awarded.
Installation of the three-quarter-size press went smoothly, reports Blue. Komori provided four weeks of onsite training for three operators.
The benefits of installing the press are many, attests Blue. Gone is the time-consuming process of producing purchase orders for outside print vendors and processing payments. No longer does the in-plant have to pick up press sheets from outside printers and haul them to its bindery. Also, the shop’s eight-up Fuji Saber Luxel Vx 9600 violet computer-to-plate device can now be better utilized, along with its prepress staff.
From the customer side, press checks are much faster due to the in-plant’s on-campus location, allowing them to spend more time in their offices. Also, and perhaps most importantly, customers are now paying a lot less for printing.
“Now we’re going to become anywhere between 10 to 20 percent cheaper because I’m not paying the commercial markup,” notes Beto.
The in-plant plans to show off the new press at an open house in March.
- Companies:
- Heidelberg
- Xerox Corp.
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.
