Epson America

In-plants that offer wide-format printing have found it to be an excellent value-added service—and more than half of them now offer this service, according to our latest survey. Once customers get a taste, they keep coming back for more. Many in-plants add ink-jet printers for proofing, only to discover a pent-up demand for posters, banners and the like.

DIGITAL PRINTING technology had its strongest showing yet at Drupa 2008, the world’s largest graphic arts trade show. The two-week event, which took place in Düsseldorf, Germany, last month, lived up to its billing as “The Ink-jet Drupa,” with “green printing” being the only challenger as a show theme, since virtually every exhibitor touched on it. About 391,000 visitors prowled the 19 halls of Drupa this year, (see sidebar about in-plants that attended), checking out the 1,971 exhibitors from 52 countries. Most of the attention, though, centered on the new digital printing devices, particularly those in the ink-jet category—though with prices ranging from $1

Last month’s ACUP conference in Clearwater, Fla., was a great opportunity for in-plant managers to share their stories. Most of them have been very busy back home and had a lot to talk about. IPG Editor Bob Neubauer spoke with as many attendees as he could corner, to find out what’s been happening in their in-plants. Here’s what a few of them have been up to: • The University of Tennessee is replacing its four-color Heidelberg with a new four-color, 40˝ Heidelberg XL-105 with in-line coating and an image control system. The shop also purchased a pile turner for press stock preparation. • California

JUSTIFYING NEW equipment on paper is one thing, but real-world verification is far more satisfying. For Jim Sebes that happened not long ago when a customer of the Cuyahoga County Central Services Printing and Reproduction (CSPR) Division asked for a quote on 50,000 single-color, one-sided documents, to be run on the in-plant’s two-color Sakurai press. A local copy shop also made a bid. The customer’s eyes nearly bulged at the result. “They couldn’t believe the price difference,” recalls Sebes, senior printing coordinator for the eight-employee in-plant. It was $1,400 cheaper to print the job on his in-plant’s offset press. This incident only underscored the

SITUATED ALONG the San Joaquin Delta waterway, about 80 miles east of San Francisco, San Joaquin Delta College has a student body of about 20,000 educated by more than 400 teachers. To help ensure students’ academic success, instructors provide assessments of each student’s progress just before final grades are assigned. The teacher identifies particular areas that need focus so students can gear their efforts accordingly. To produce a variable data piece such as this Academic Progress Letter, the college turns to its 12-employee Publication Center. “With our number of students and faculty, we probably do a half a million sheets of VDP a

DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY—01/22/08—Four months before the start of drupa 2008, print media trade fair, the exhibitor registration reflects the international market situation and industry developments. Consequently, the leading technology producing nations will be the most strongly represented countries at drupa 2008: Germany (745,100 sq. ft.), Italy (148,200 sq. ft.), the U.S. (142,600 sq. ft.), Switzerland (130,500 sq. ft.), Netherlands (99,100 sq. ft.), Japan (89,200 sq. ft.), the UK (80,000 sq. ft.), Belgium (70,800 sq. ft.) and Spain (68,600 sq. ft.). Exhibit space booked by emerging industrial countries such as China and India has increased considerably: by 300% for China (84,700 sq. ft.) and 60% for

WHEN PHILLIPS Petroleum merged with Conoco Inc. in 2002, the resulting international energy company, Conoco-Phillips, had more that just its petrochemical assets to consider. Both Phillips and Conoco had operated first-class in-plants, and the Fortune 500 firm had to decide what to do with them. 

If you happen to be driving around in Tucson, Ariz., and a school bus passes you sporting a large color banner, there’s a good chance you’re looking at the work of Michael Ortiz’s in-plant. The 10-employee print shop at the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) has been putting its new Epson Stylus Pro 9800 to good use printing signage for the district’s buses, as well as vinyl banners for its 110 schools. “We can do that cheaper than the commercial shops,” says Ortiz, Print Shop manager, “and I can make this available to other school districts also. It’s a revenue source for us, but it

A partial, temporary shutdown allowed the Print Shop at Burlington County College to expand its digital color printing capabilities. Last June, the six-employee operation in Pemberton, N.J., was forced to crate its presses and move its remaining equipment across the hall into temporary quarters so the college could complete a heating/air conditioning replacement project in its area. To continue serving the color printing needs of customers during this disruption, Manager Stephen Amitrano arranged a three-month loan of a Konica Minolta bizhubPRO C500. The 50-ppm machine performed so well that Amitrano decided to keep it once the shop returned to its digs. “It’s a life saver,” he

IN A WAY, Pete Hoekema’s career has been book-ended by In-Plant Graphics magazine. In a 1975 article, we caught him at the beginning of his career, when he was a printing manager at the Foremost Insurance in-plant, overseeing 14 employees and dreaming of expanding into color printing. Today, after 30+ years as graphics manager at Muskegon Community College, Hoekema is looking forward to his retirement in December. “It’s been great,” he says of his career, almost all of which has been spent in the former logging community of Muskegon, Mich., along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. Hoekema was born not far