Offset Printing - Sheet-Fed

Many of us have heard that adding UV printing to our repertoire would increase our offerings to our customers but have not completely understood exactly why. Do the benefits overcome the added expenses? Is UV the answer for developing our business? With today's economy, should I make this capital investment? The question might actually be; "Can you afford not to make the investment?"

Just before Christmas I took the train up to New York City to visit a few in-plants. I do this from time to time to remind myself what the inside of an in-plant looks like and to learn more about the situations managers are facing. So I planned a rather ambitious itinerary that would take me to four different in-plants, all around the city. One was at a television network, one at a financial services company. Another was in a hospital, and the last at a famous art museum.

When University Printing Services at Texas Tech University made the decision to step beyond two-color production and into high-quality offset printing a few years ago, the Lubbock-based in-plant  chose a six-color ROLAND 300 perfector press with aqueous coating, from manroland. As word spread, more work flowed in and the in-plant pushed that press to its limits. Now, nearly six years and 48 million impressions later, Printing Services is preparing to add a second ROLAND 300.

New York was decked out for Christmas when IPG Editor Bob Neubauer went there to visit four in-plants: NBC, Metropolitan Museum of Art, AXA Equitable and the NY Presbyterian Hospital.

The University of Houston’s Printing and Postal Service department celebrated its 60th anniversary last month, an event that honored not only the in-plant’s longevity but its recent advancements as well. Over the past 12 months, the 30-employee shop has added several major pieces of offset and digital printing equipment, gearing itself up for a very busy 2010.

Heidelberg has restructured its business, resulting in head of sales Jurgen Rautert leaving the company after nearly two decades. Overall sales responsibility has been handed over to chief executive Bernhard Schreier.

Scheduled maintenance can forestall major breakdowns, but demands for keeping production online, especially during peak production periods, find pressroom managers pressured to put off maintenance until later. When “later” arrives, though, that kind of procrastinator thinking can devastate the bottom line.

Take a quick tour of the PRINT 09 show floor with IPG Editor Bob Neubauer.

The 2008 National Government Publishing Association conference brought 82 in-plant managers to Belleview, Wash. Here's a look back.

AFTER STARTING up an extensive digital in-plant almost three years ago, the Church of Scientology has decided to replicate this success with an even more ambitious in-house printing operation. Just a few months from now the church plans to open a new offset printing plant in Commerce, Calif., 15 minutes from downtown Los Angeles.