Duplo USA

Folding machines are built to last. But many that were sold in the 1980s don't have the tools needed to handle 21st-century work. By W. Eric Martin Folding and printing go hand-in-hand. Rarely is an item delivered from the press to the end user without being manipulated: letters must fit into envelopes; brochures and magazines must be folded before being trimmed; and holiday cards must be made mantle-ready. While folding itself is fairly straightforward, knowing what you need from the equipment doing the folding can be a bit trickier. Folding equipment seems to have an amazingly long life span, creating creases for decades before

Perfect binding, saddle stitching and mechanical binding each have their places. Find out which ones are best for your in-plant. By Vincent De Franco As in-plants bring increasingly more work in-house, they're finding themselves in direct competition with commercial printers. Therefore it's crucial they have up-to-date equipment that enables them to compete. This is especially true of bindery equipment, since the binding and stitching on a booklet is often the first thing a customer notices. When shopping for bindery equipment there are three major categories from which to choose: perfect binding, saddle stitching and mechanical binding (double loop, etc.). The most common bindery process

By adding digital duplicators, these in-plants have saved money, decreased turnaround times and kept more work in-house. Majoring In High-volume Color o grow beyond its humble beginnings, the Glassboro Normal School, home to 400 students in 1923, knew progress would be measured by more than a name change. Today, after much dedication and innovation, Rowan University, in Rowan, N.J., has almost 10,000 students and 1,200 faculty and staff. Back in the pre-digital days, students and staff turned to the Rowan University print shop for most of their document needs. In 1994, when Mike Lukasavage started to run Rowan's printing operations, he had a

Kamehameha Schools Design & Production Services recently brought a Xerox Gold Award home to its Honolulu facility. By Bob Neubauer While winter sends snow and bitter cold across much of the country, Reid Silva and his crew at Kamehameha Schools, in Honolulu, live in a world without jackets, where eucalyptus trees grow in a lush valley visible through the windows in their in-plant. But their location in the virtual paradise of Hawaii belies the hard work the nine employees at Design & Production Services handle every day. The three operators in the Digital Document Center (or DDC—part of Design & Production Services) churn

With an ear for his customers' needs, Randy Stahl and his team have built a tight, efficient in-plant. By Mike Llewellyn Although central Pennsylvania's Messiah College Press recently added a 42˝ Hewlett-Packard 5500 wide-format printer to its lineup, and even though it's been checking out Xerox DocuTech, Canon and Océ printers to beef up its digital services, Manager Randy Stahl says the in-plant's chief talent is its ability to flourish in a tough economic environment. "One of the biggest things is always doing more with less," he says from his office on Messiah's pastoral, 350-acre campus in Grantham, just outside the state capital. What

Seeing big money in their mailing operations, these in-plants have invested aggressively in new equipment. By Mike Llewellyn State of Oregon Publishing and Distribution Program Salem, Ore. Manager: Kay Erickson In-plant Employees: 132 Mailing Employees: 25 Mailing equipment upgrades in past three years: Pitney Bowes Series 8 inserter, Secap V300 dual-head ink-jet system For Program Manager Kay Erickson, the purchase of a Pitney Bowes Series 8 inserter and a Secap V300 dual-head ink-jet system translated to an increase in cost savings and an expansion of the in-plant's business. "The Pitney inserter allows the option of cut sheet or continuous. It has given us backup

While the price of collators remains relatively constant, manufacturers recommend considering a few things before buying. By Erik Cagle You don't have to tell Aldridge Free about the benefits of having a new collator. For years he ran an old, second-hand model at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Central Printing and put up with a host of difficulties. "We had a lot of trouble feeding certain kinds of paper," he remarks. Sometimes he would have to stop the machine after it put together two or three books and adjust it. Other times the collator wouldn't run the paper at all, and the in-plant's four

With high-speed, black-and-white printers designed to bear the brunt of an in-plant's workload, managers want to see how fast the machines cut costs. By Mike Llewellyn JIM ALLEN, the newly appointed manager of Printing Services at New York City's Fashion Institute of Technology, runs a pair of Océ 2600s to handle flyers, instructional packets for professors and countless other nuts-and-bolts projects that come into the in-plant every day. With black-and-white printing accounting for 85 percent of the in-plant's workload, the 2600s have become the backbone of the FIT shop. "They're definitely workhorses," says Allen. "They do almost all of the work." That's how many

In an era of earlier job deadlines, shorter runs, increased quality and more complex jobs, efficient post-press operations are critical for a successful in-plant. By Mike Llewellyn and Caroline Miller SOLID FOLDING capabilities are critical to the success of an in-plant. That's what Mel Zischler believes. As manager of Principal Financial Group Printing Services, Zischler oversaw the recent installation of a Challenge Machinery folder into his 33-employee in-plant in Des Moines, Iowa, where it will work side-by-side with a five-year-old Stahl folder. "We had an application come through where we needed greater [paper-handling] capacity," explains Zischler. While looking at folders, Zischler says he

Saddle stitcher manufacturers say time is of the essence in their business, and they're looking to save it on makeready, training, production and, of course, ROI. by Mike Llewellyn "IN-PLANTS, LIKE every business, are being challenged to do more with less," says Mark Hunt, director of marketing for Standard Finishing Systems. But unlike other businesses, Hunt believes, in-plants have a more reliable stream of internal work feeding them. To vendors of finishing equipment, this makes in-plants the ideal customers in slow economic times. "In-plants are extremely important," Hunt continues. "In-plants have always been important, but especially in difficult times because they have their own