MBM Corp.

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.

Hot products for the in-plant market.

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.

Vanderbilt University Printing Services continues to thrive by combining a well-established, bustling offset operation with burgeoning business opportunities and digital solutions to meet and exceed customer demand.

When Robert Donahue started as director of purchasing at Franklin University, one of his goals was to revamp the mailing services operation and cut costs. His success there got him thinking about other ways to save money for the 111-year-old private university, based in Columbus, Ohio. In particular, he wondered how much the university was spending to outsource printing and whether the school could save money by getting equipment and printing that work in-house.

In-plants have introduced scores of new services in just the past two years, ranging from new types of printed products, like vehicle wraps, foil security printing, magnets and envelopes, to data management services, such as mail list cleansing, transactional scanning and records management.

EFI proved that "what happens in Vegas doesn't have to stay in Vegas," especially for the roughly 800 attendees who could select from more than 150 breakout and training sessions at the EFI Connect users' group meeting held here Jan. 15-18 at the Wynn Las Vegas. Sessions covered MIS/ERP software, Web-to-print systems, industrial inkjet printers and Fiery technology.

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.

Fujifilm will show the J Press 720 inkjet press. Heidelberg will present Prinect Digital Workflow Integration. New features for the Kodak NexPress platform will be shown.

In-plants are involved in nearly every aspect of a document's life cycle, from design through