In just 10 days the On Demand Conference & Expo will kick off in Philadelphia. This year's event focuses on in-plants like never before, with nearly a dozen sessions covering topics of special interest to in-plant managers. Here's a quick list, in the order they take place:
Océ, an international leader in digital document management, today announced the introduction of a series of new digital color printers demonstrating the company’s commitment to achieving leadership in the color market. The announcements include additions to the Océ JetStream family of very high speed ink-jet printers and the introduction of the Océ ColorStream 9000 series. Océ previously announced a fifth color station option for the ColorStream family at the Hunkeler Innovation Days last month in Luzern, Switzerland.
Two interests from early in Tom Tozier’s life have continued into adulthood: a love of music and a dedication to the graphic arts industry. Tozier, director of Imaging Services at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has carved a niche as a leader in the in-plant printing community while keeping his passion for the guitar alive. Born on a U.S. Army base in Nuremberg, Germany, and raised in California, Tozier got his first taste of the printing industry at age 14, when he went to work at a print shop east of Los Angeles owned by his stepfather. By tackling menial tasks like sweeping and helping out in the bindery, he learned a craft while putting spending money in his pocket.
Even successful digital printing operations need a little offset sometimes. Take Simon Fraser University Document Solutions. In 2006, IPG detailed how this in-plant had moved from antiquated offset equipment to state-of-the-art digital printers like a Xerox iGen3. The shop didn’t completely abandon offset, though. It retained a four-color 20x29? Heidelberg Speedmaster 74. Now the in-plant has replaced that press with a five-color Heidelberg Speedmaster 52 with a coater. Not only has the shop’s productivity soared, the in-plant is keeping more work in-house as a result.
Sustainability starts at the corporate level. Several vendors are taking steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, use alternative energy sources, recycle and more.
As companies and organizations catch “the green wave” and start looking for ways to improve their sustainability, they rely heavily on the initiatives of their individual departments. In-plants can play a major part in the overall green success of their organizations. One in-plant that’s leading the way is the Reprographics department at the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE), the nation’s largest regional education agency. Thanks to an equipment upgrade, the shop’s Océ digital printers now reportedly discharge up to 90 percent less ground-level ozone, consume up to 45 percent less energy and emit a much lower operating noise level than ever before.
MGI USA, the multi-substrate (paper and plastic) digital press and finishing solutions manufacturer, announced that they have added six new dealers to their U.S. network within recent months: The Oldham Group, Graphco, Paper Handling Solutions, Guaranteed Service & Supplies, Inc. (GSS Graphics), Print & Finishing Solutions and Ken Williams Graphic Consulting, Inc.
This paper explores the specific areas where Presstek DI presses offer environmental and economic advantages over conventional offset, digital toner and inkjet printing technologies Presstek DI presses redefine printing and integrate new innovations, which lower its environmental impact while creating new business opportunities for printers.
On the heels of a Wall Street Journal article that claimed Eastman Kodak was planning to shed its toner-based Nexpress technology, The Rochester, N.Y.-based company revealed it is going to expand its focus on the digital press offering, perhaps through a partnership, but will not divest it.
Antonio Perez, Kodak CEO, told Reuters "Given this environment we are not going to be able to invest in the whole portfolio. We are not thinking of divesting any of those businesses. We have to find a way to continue to be in all those businesses without all the risk."
Late getting into digital color, Arkansas State University Printing Services has just installed a Xerox 700 color printer. According to David Maloch, assistant director, the choice was anything but a snap decision.Equipped with sheetfed presses as well as a Fairchild NewsKing web press for printing the student newspaper and class schedules, the nine-employee Jonesboro-based operation could not accommodate the growing number of short-run color jobs, Maloch says. So to find the best digital printer, Printing Services managed to convince three different vendors to install their competing machines for month-long trial runs, one after the other, at no cost to the in-plant.
