Heidelberg

NAMED ONE of the decade’s top 10 most recognizable corporate icons, the lovable Aflac duck, featured in television and print commercials, not only makes us laugh, but delivers a powerful message about our financial future. Headquartered in Columbus, Ga., Aflac utilizes an enormous and diversified array of printed material to support its high-profile icon. To produce the hundreds of millions of printed pieces Aflac needs each year, the company relies on a wholly owned subsidiary called Communicorp. 

When the Graphic Arts/Printing Technology program at Central Maine Technical College in Auburn, Maine, received a government grant to purchase new equipment, instructor Terry Brann and his students chose a two-color Heidelberg Printmaster QM 46 press. It was installed last November. “It’s important for students to see that sheetfed offset technology continues to improve right alongside its digital counterpart,” says Brann.

Heidelberg USA has launched a new Web portal dedicated to exploring sustainable solutions for the printing industry. The portal addresses sustainable printing from three distinct perspectives.

• “Green Manufacturing” details Heidelberg’s environmental policy and green manufacturing processes, and lists environmental milestones achieved by Heidelberg.

For decades, new equipment was a rarity at the New York City Department of Health’s Reproduction Unit. Like many in-plants, the 18-employee shop languished in its basement abode, accepting equipment handouts from other agencies and buying inexpensive, small equipment when it could cobble together some funds. Then, about four years ago, everything changed. The Health Department invested $1.13 million in new press, computer-to-plate and bindery equipment for the in-plant. Then federal bio terrorism grant money funded more than a dozen additional machines. This astounding equipment infusion is unlike anything ever seen in the in-plant world.

Folsom Lake College knows the value of having an in-plant. That’s why the Sacramento-area school created a new in-plant a few years back and spent thousands of dollars stocking it with the latest equipment. Now, fortified with Konica Minolta printers, a Heidelberg press and an assortment of bindery equipment, the two-employee in-plant has just unveiled its latest addition: an online job ordering system.

After seven years of service, the Epson 10000 at Missouri State University was fading fast. When it reached the point where it would run for only an hour a day, Mark McCarty had enough. Despite the budget crunch, the Printing Services manager was able to get approval for a new Epson Stylus Pro 9900 so the Springfield, Mo., in-plant could once again offer accurate color proofs. The 44?-wide ink-jet printer arrived in February.

Even successful digital printing operations need a little offset sometimes. Take Simon Fraser University Document Solutions. In 2006, IPG detailed how this in-plant had moved from antiquated offset equipment to state-of-the-art digital printers like a Xerox iGen3. The shop didn’t completely abandon offset, though. It retained a four-color 20x29? Heidelberg Speedmaster 74. Now the in-plant has replaced that press with a five-color Heidelberg Speedmaster 52 with a coater. Not only has the shop’s productivity soared, the in-plant is keeping more work in-house as a result.

Sustainability starts at the corporate level. Several vendors are taking steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, use alternative energy sources, recycle and more.

When cosmetics giant Mary Kay Inc. departed from the trend of producing products overseas, Keith Hopson, supervisor of Mary Kay Printing Services, in Carrollton, Texas, had to move fast. The company’s decision to make its products in the U.S. included the printing and finishing of leaflets and inserts. “Our world kind of got turned upside-down in August of 2007,” Hopson recalls. “We struggled for about four months trying to keep up with the orders.”

AS RANDY Smith sees it, the only way his in-plant can ensure a quick response to its customers’ needs is by doing the work in-house—and that means having the necessary equipment on hand, ready for action. “I try so hard to do as much as I can under this one roof,” says Smith, director of University Printing Services at Texas Tech University. In pursuit of that goal, the 35-employee in-plant has added an impressive array of equipment over the last few months. At the top of the list is a new HP Indigo 5500. Installed in late July, it is the in-plant’s first digital color press.