GBC

Most in-plants’ print jobs center around the core business of their parent companies. But, on any given day, Brian Kniceley’s shop on the shores of Lake Erie could be producing a range of items including window décor for a donut shop, props for a magic show, vehicle decals, or informational signage about the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

In September, the 70-employee state printing and mailing operation installed a 42˝ Océ ColorWave 650 and greatly expanded its wide-format business, focusing on larger-sized posters and banners than the shop’s previous 24˝ Canon imagePrograf W6400 could produce.

When Regional Health Printing Services moved into its new facility on the eastern edge of Rapid City, S.D., in October, the in-plant got more than just larger quarters; it gained a much smoother workflow, which has been paying dividends in increased productivity.

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.

Autumn should prove to be an exciting season at the Wisconsin Department of Administration’s Bureau of Publishing and Distribution. The all-digital, 60-employee shop, located in the state capital of Madison, is moving into a new facility this month. And, as temperatures outside begin to drop and leaves start to fall, the in-plant will be busy enhancing its new digs with fresh equipment and other improvements to help customers fulfill their printing and mailing needs.

Over the years, North Kansas City Schools had developed quite a collection of desktop printers and copiers. The school district counted 2,000 laser and inkjet printers and 90 aging copiers at its 32 educational sites.

Here's a look at some of the new printing and binding equipment and software that will be shown at PRINT 13, taking place in Chicago, September 8-12.

It was a fairly routine day at Allegheny College Printing Services. Manager Mark Pritchard was talking with a customer when a popping noise made him turn and look toward his in-plant's Ikon CPP 650 color printer.

To keep Michigan Farm Bureau's Printing Services operation running efficiently and effectively, Karen Meyers depends on Avanti's Graphic Arts Management System. Its estimating, order entry, inventory management and reporting modules, as well as Avanti's eAccess Web-to-print software, have streamlined the in-plant.

Will we ever go back to long-run offset work? Is the variability and one-off flexibility of the digital press turning the old, heavy iron obsolete? If the Obama-Romney rhetoric parade of 2012 taught us anything, it's that the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.