Villanova University Graphic Services moves to new facility, adds digital envelope press

By Bob Neubauer

Poster Days at Villanova

One area where Villanova University Graphic Services has found big success has been in wide-format printing. The in-plant runs a 44˝ Canon imagePROGRAF iPF8300 wide-format inkjet printer.

Five times a year, the university holds “poster days” where students work in groups to create posters dealing with their areas of study. In the past they had been printing these posters at local quick printers, at a very high cost, so Michael George, director of Central Services, stepped in with a less expensive, more streamlined solution.

“We aligned with the faculty members that run these poster days, and we set up a Web portal,” explains George. “So students can just submit [their posters] right to our Web portal, and then we print them internally, and then the [students] come here and pick them up, and we invoice the department,” explains George. The in-plant printed 74 posters in one day recently, he says.

“Those five days throughout the course of the [year] basically pay for my wide-format machines,” he says. “We rely on that. That’s a huge day for us.”

With the availability of new substrates for wide-format printers, George sees many more opportunities ahead.

“Wide-format is going to explode here,” he predicts.

For nearly 60 years, Villanova University Graphic Services operated out of one of the most unique facilities in the industry: an old house.

Once a residence and later a dormitory, the building had 12 rooms, eight of which housed the in-plant's equipment and offices. A two-color Presstek/ABDick 9982 press filled one room; in another sat a Presstek Vector TX52 computer-to-plate system, a Xerox DocuColor 5000AP and a Canon imagePROGRAF iPF8300 wide-format printer; the bindery and shipping departments were in the garage.

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Bob Neubauer Author's page

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.

Villanova Moves Ahead