Epson America

When you sit down and talk with Donna Horbelt, you immediately feel like you've been friends for years. So it's no wonder that her engaging personality and the interest she takes in her customers has led them to view her in-plant at the University of Texas Heath Science Center at Houston as a supportive ally, committed to their success.

The snowstorm that shut down the University of West Georgia (UWG) and much of nearby Atlanta in January was nothing compared to the gale that nearly blew away UWG's in-plant a few years ago. Back in 2009, UWG administration floated a plan to shutter the school's Department of Publications and Printing and reallocate funding. The idea was to begin contracting for printing services with outside vendors.

California State Printer Jerry Hill spent Ben Franklin's 308th birthday hosting an open house at the Office of State Publishing (OSP) to promote the in-plant's newly expanded facilities and upgraded capabilities.

With a centuries-old reputation for quality, efficiency and cost control, D'Addario naturally needs to keep a close eye on all of its package design and print advertising. To enable this, the Farmingdale, N.Y., company operates a busy in-house ad agency and in-plant printing division.

A brand new student center at Sonoma State University has given new life to the Rohnert Park, Calif., school’s in-plant. Along with the dining and retail operations that have relocated into the three-story, 130,000-square-foot student center, the in-plant has secured a 1,700-square-foot space where it is now conveniently located for passing students and facility.

Not long ago, the CEO, COO and CFO of HealthSouth—one of the nation's leading providers of physical rehabilitation—visited the organization's Print Solutions facility, located 15 miles from its Birmingham, Ala., headquarters. The occasion was to celebrate the shop's acquisition of an HP Indigo 7600 digital press and an EFI Rastek wide-format printer.

Some of the latest wide-format printers from Agfa, Epson, Canon, EFI, Screen USA, HP, Mimaki, Mutoh and Fujifilm.

Washington State University Publishing has just installed an 11-color 44˝ Epson Stylus Pro 9900 wide-format printer. In the first two months the 45-employee in-plant has had the machine, it has pumped out well over 200 posters and other projects.

Over the past 25 years, Printing Services at The University of West Alabama has not added a single employee. Yet, according to Director Jimmy Robinson, the workload has increased tenfold. “So we have to get machines that are able to do things faster,” he says.

With traditional offset exhibitors like Heidelberg giving the Chicago trade show a pass, the digital print vendors were the new kings. Xerox, Canon, Konica Minolta and Fujifilm led the pack in booth size, and each of them had new inkjet production presses to proclaim.