Wide Format Opportunities

In-plants that have installed wide-format ink-jet printers are finding many unique and unexpected uses for the devices.

By Carol Brzozowski

It was an odd request. A young man walked into the printing department at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and asked the shop to print a life-size picture of himself, mount it on foam board and cut it out so it would stand by itself. Why? He planned to give it to his girlfriend as a summer break gift.

"It was more of a reminder of him as much as it was a deterrent to any other boys, but it was funny," recalls Liz Bowden, printing production assistant for the Facilities and Services Printing department.

This is one of the more unusual uses the in-plant has found for the 60˝ HP DesignJet 5500 printer it purchased last year. But by no means is it the only unique wide-format job the shop has produced.

With wide-format printers already installed in 31 percent of in-plants, the technology is clearly catching on. What most surprises new owners is the unique uses customers are finding for these printers—jobs they never dreamed of when they bought the devices.

From Proofs to Posters

Three years ago, Printing Services at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield purchased a 44˝ Epson 10000 with archival ink. The goal was to use it to do color proofs before going to film, with the idea the operation would sell an occasional poster or banner, says Mark McCarty, manager. But posters and banners started flying off the printer, and soon the 11-employee in-plant was printing display board with charts and graphs for departmental research projects.

"Every year, we pick up more clients who didn't realize we had that service available, or if they are in the shop to proof a print job and see some prints off of our Epson, they'll say, 'I could be using that,' " McCarty notes.

Among the most unique printing jobs: three 38x54˝ star charts and maps printed on canvas for a Physics, Astronomy and Materials Science Department member who needed to roll them into a tube to take to a European symposium. The job included metric conversions. The in-plant also produces aerial photographs for the president's office from digital photos taken by the school's Photographic Services department.

A large wall mural consisting of seven 3x9-foot panels depicting a university time line to commemorate its 100th anniversary has been the print shop's largest and most unusual project, McCarty says.

Valley View School District 365U in Romeoville, Ill., also found a lot more uses for its in-plant's wide-format printer than those for which it was originally installed. Printing Services purchased a Canon W7250 ink-jet printer two years ago because elementary school teachers wanted to reproduce colorful signs to hang in their classrooms.

After the purchase, the rest of the district caught on, and wide-format printing is now used evenly on all district levels, says Dan Strodtman, director of Printing Services, which has six full-time and two part-time employees and a $950,000 operating budget. For instance, the print shop is now producing the periodic element chart for secondary school science classes and banners for sporting events, using 80# semi-gloss paper.

Artistic Work

At the University of Illinois, the new HP DesignJet 5500 has allowed the operation to print more artistic work, including banners, posters, art prints, photo shoot backdrops and multi-paneled wall murals. One medical school physician takes pictures of his friends and family against creative backgrounds and has the in-plant print them on canvas on the wide-format ink-jet printer.

"I won't calibrate the canvas to the printer, so it prints a really low saturated image," Bowden says. "He'll put a clear coat of Jesso over the canvas to get a barrier between it and the paint and uses the print as an outline sketch, building up the saturation with different layers of colors." The project thus has a 3-D look.

In addition to canvas, the in-plant uses backlit film.

"As soon as the sun hits it, you get these bright, vibrant colors," notes Bowden.

Other substrates include vinyl cling material for window banners, tablecloths on satin and a 'bus board' material to use as graphics on the side of buses. Bowden says most prints are laminated, a plus for customers who travel with posters and want to prevent damage.

The in-plant does some "fun" projects as well. Bowden says for "Take Your Child to Work Day," the in-plant printed a wide-format picture of a dump truck with a hole cut for the driver's head so Facilities and Services department employees' children could pop their own heads through to have their picture taken along with someone posing as "Bob the Builder."

The shop produces up to 50 scientific posters weekly, mostly for graduate students and interns. The in-plant also does work for the Krannert Art Museum's new exhibits.

"We'll also do a lot of prints for people who want a big poster to give as a present for a wedding or retirement," Bowden says. "We've really branched out this year. People are starting to realize they can make a big poster from an image without spending $400 on a framed painting, but do something that is personal."

The in-plant plans to buy another HP wide-format ink-jet printer, Bowden says. The existing one is getting used so much that a second printer has become necessary.

"We may end up getting a 42˝ printer to have two machines running at the same time or dedicate one only to black ink, architectural prints or just photographs," she says.

From 50 to 400 Signs Per Year

At Chemical Abstracts Service, in Columbus, Ohio, scientists work to pull together the world's largest collection of chemical and related scientific information for the research community.

Dennis Leffingwell serves as Printing Services Manager for the company, which employs seven in its in-plant. In February 2002, the in-plant purchased an A.B.Dick DeSign U System and plans to order another wide-format ink-jet printer.

The intent in purchasing the first printer was to produce expo materials, Leffingwell says. Signs and presentation materials are typical printing projects.

Since then, the operation has done more printing for internal operations, such as meetings and company events.

Production has stepped up from 50 signs a year to 400 since the system was installed, with word-of-mouth promoting more interest. For instance, the operation recently produced 40 signs for a European expo.

The in-plant's biggest client is the company's marketing/graphic division with other divisions taking interest. For the most part, the operation prints 2x3-foot posters and laminates them.

Among the most unusual jobs the in-plant has done since acquiring the printer is a large board announcing newly hired employees. A 4x8-foot poster is displayed in the main lobby, bearing photos of new employees and welcoming them to the company.

It used to cost more than $1,000 and take up to five weeks to have that job outsourced. Now, Leffingwell's operation digitally imposes about 50 photos on a board and has the project ready within three days. It's refreshed about every six months.

Southwest Missouri State's McCarty notes the price of wide-format ink-jet printers has come down over the years.

"If anybody hasn't done it yet, they really need to look hard at it because I think they'll be surprised how much revenue they can generate," he says. "Within the second year, the machine paid for itself and has definitely contributed to the overall bottom line."

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