GBC

As the cost of laminators drops, so does their size, the need for training—almost everything. Except quality, say these manufacturers. by Mike Llewellyn "Price is just about everything at an airline," reveals Bill Zieske, director of Printing Services for Alaska Airlines. So when his Seattle-based in-plant picked up a GBC 5270 laminator in 1998, a good price was the number-one priority. Zieske says his shop uses the laminator to handle a variety of tasks, from placards that end up inside the aircraft to much smaller identification tags for airline employees. Zieske's experiences parallel one general trend in laminating equipment, according to industry experts, and

The Division of Publishing and Distribution Services for the State of Oregon has held strong for the past year, with sales steady despite an unfriendly economic climate. Manager Kay Erickson attributes the health of her facility to seeking out innovative ways to bring in extra revenue. Clocking in at three years on the job, Erickson may not be a veteran yet, but she has not let that stop her from guiding the shop through what she sees as the three main changes shaping its future. They are a transition into digital printing, a partnership with Oregon Corrections Enterprises and the addition of graphic

Higher-than-expected turnout made Graph Expo 2002 an exciting four days for both vendors and attendees. By Mike Llewellyn &012;and Bob Neubauer Graph Expo was back in action last month in Chicago, and from the look of the 380,000-square-foot show floor, the printing industry may soon spring back, as well. Close to 38,000 people attended the show, including buyers representing over 9,600 companies. After last year's big-ticket event, Print '01, was brought to a halt by the September 11 terrorist attacks, it was reassuring to see crowded exhibit areas and overflowing equipment demos this year. David Poulos, director of communications for the event's organizer,

If you want to keep your high-quality posters looking good, laminate them. Silicone Laminating Rollers Banner American's MightyLam 2700 laminates from .0015˝ to .010˝ gauge film and mounts materials up to 3⁄16˝ thick, easy-to-set heat controls, and a variable speed control for operating at speeds up to 10 feet per minute. It also features a safety shield, drop-down bottom idler for easy loading, silicone laminating rollers, reverse switch, adjustable slitters, forced air cooling, LCD readout, adjustable supply roll tension and variable speed control. Three Models Available CodaPro 44 laminators, from Coda, are available in three models. The CodaPro44 with double heated rollers will

After moving from offset to digital printing, this in-plant slashed turnaround time and increased business. by Dan Pothier A few years ago, Portsmouth City Public Schools, in Virginia, decided it was time to transform the existing offset print shop into a digital, on-demand print center. Skipper Duck, assistant superintendent, and Dan Pendarvis, purchasing agent, hired me to run the center based on my experience as digital production supervisor at the U.S. Government's Defense Automated Printing Service (DAPS). My first act was to transform the shop from being all offset to producing 80 percent of all jobs digitally. Since then, turnaround time has

Despite the economic downturn, many printers made the trip to New York to see the latest in on-demand printing technologies. by Bob Neubauer With print sales predicted to be relatively flat in 2002, it was encouraging to see the exhibit floors of the ninth annual On Demand Conference fairly busy with attendees. According to conference organizers, nearly 19,000 "industry professionals from around the world" were in attendance. Though the number of exhibitors (150+) was down from last year (200), the event still drew a number of in-plants to New York's Jacob Javits Center, to do some serious looking—and even purchasing. Still, all was

If the books you print need to lay flat, plastic coil, spiral and double-loop wire binding may be the best choices for you. by Chris Bauer JUST ASK manufacturers of spiral wire or plastic coil binding equipment what advantages their products have over other finishing techniques. You will get a lot of good answers. "Undoubtedly, the greatest advantage of spiral binding is that when opened, the book lays flat," points out David Spiel of Long Island City, N.Y.-based Spiel Associates. "Lay-flat perfect binding was supposed to put an end to mechanical binding, but it hasn't because it doesn't really lay flat. Books bound

When the City of San Diego's in-plant sees an opportunity, it rushes right in to take advantage of it. The resulting mix of services, both traditional and nontraditional, has kept customers happy. by CAROLINE MILLER Not only is variety the spice of life for the City of San Diego's in-plant. It's also the key to its success. "We've found that we've had to continually reinvent ourselves, and that like all good in-plants we have to always anticipate the needs of our customers before our customers do," says Liam McGuigan, deputy director of the general services department for the City of San Diego. Situated

Kansas Division of Printing Topeka The Division of Printing for the State of Kansas is already a large operation—$7.3 million in sales, 83 full-time employees, three satellite locations—but Director Richard Gonzales would love to see it expand. "We've consolidated [work from in-plants in] the Departments of Health, Revenue and Human Resources, and have assumed a large portion of the work from the Department of Transportation," says Gonzales. "We visited the print shops, researched their jobs and showed them in black and white what it was actually costing them." Those hard figures helped convince the departments to pool their workloads. For example, the division's newest

University of Missouri Columbia, Mo. Not only is University of Missouri-Columbia Printing Services the largest printer in town, it also recently became the offset printing arm of the town's local government. "The City of Columbia's in-plant closed its offset printing operation, and we set up a meeting to see if we could help them meet their printing needs," says Rick Wise, director of the university's in-plant. "The city is now a regular printing customer for us." This isn't all the in-plant has been up to, however; it's also been converting its Quick Copy operation from "off-the-glass-only" copying to digital printing with electronic access.