Epson America

With equipment specs, pictures and video all available online, why should an in-plant manager bother going to Graph Expo any more? Those who made the trip to Chicago last month have lots of good reasons.

The official numbers aren't in yet, but the crowds at this week's Graph Expo show in Chicago seemed larger than in previous years. Those who attended certainly had a number of new products to check out. Here are just a few of the new machines unveiled at Graph Expo.

A little creative thinking and a small compromise can sometimes lead to unsuspected revenue. When a previous state commissioner placed a request to the State of Tennessee’s Division of Printing and Media Services for matted and framed photographs to be hung in the commissioner’s suite, Director Tammy Golden had to get creative.

Often when wide-format printing is discussed, the immediate connotation is of posters and banners. But a little creativity can go a long way, and with advancements in printer, ink and substrate technology, in-plants around the country are finding innovative ways to serve their parent companies with wide format, beyond posters and banners.

With approximately 65 percent of in-plants offering wide-format printing according to IPG data, managers need to be aware how they can maintain high print quality at reasonable costs. The SpencerLab Digital Color Laboratory has just conducted an independent evaluation of print quality and ink usage-based running cost for several Hewlett Packard, Canon and Epson wide-format printers, in multiple applications.

Hot products for the in-plant market.

Poster Day was causing problems, and Jim Sabulski knew he had to do something about it.

These products for the in-plant market will be on display at Graph Expo.

Season ticket holders at East Carolina University (ECU) used to get a lot more mail at the start of football season. Their tickets for Pirate home games would come in one mailing, their parking passes in another, then their Pirate Club membership cards in a third. It was up to the fans to keep them all straight.

When Gerry Pinela took over as supervisor of Central Services for the City of Torrance, Calif., in June of 2007, the job submission process at the nine-employee in-plant was somewhat laborious. Customers filled out a three-part NCR form, and then the staff manually entered the job information into an Excel spreadsheet. The manual process was time consuming and lacked the tracking and reporting capabilities Pinela needed to effectively manage the workflow.