Xerox Corp.

One of the more exciting acquisitions for the Print Solutions department at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee in 2011 was a new four-color Presstek 75DI digital offset press with an aqueous coater. It joined the Print Solutions family in May.

Although more than half (58 percent) of the quick and small commercial printers surveyed experienced increased sales during the first quarter of 2011--up at least 10 percent for a quarter of the group--increases in paper, energy and employee healthcare costs have wiped out the gains, according to the latest issue of the National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL) “Quick and Small Commercial Printers Trends Report.”

At the beginning of 2011, the in-plant at U.K.-based University of Essex, in Wivenhoe Park, rebranded itself as Print Essex. The 13-employee shop then strategically targeted a broader range of customers including those in the commercial market.

Xerox debuted its DocuColor 8080 Digital Press, which can print at 80 pages per minute on paper weights up to 300 gsm. Designed to handle jobs ranging from direct mail and calendars to booklets and collateral, the 8080 uses a low gloss dry ink, which offers a smooth, matte-like finish.

Dozens of Philadelphia-area printers, including several in-plant managers, turned out for the grand opening of the new Xerox Color Innovation Center in Cherry Hill, NJ.

BYU's Print and Mail Production Center (PMPC) opened its photo book operation by "kind of hand-assembling" books, according to Assistant Director Thomas Roylance. But the in-plant quickly recognized the need for a true production solution.

When Simon Fraser University's in-plant introduced photo books in September 2009, its original goal was to create more demand for graphic color work.

There was something about the recent In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) conference in Charleston, S.C., that really made it stand out; something more than the great sessions and packed vendor fair; something beyond the fact that Ricoh Americas launched a major color print system there, bringing the event into the national spotlight.

When Citrus College’s Reprographics department began offering photo printing services, it initially generated prints from its Xerox iGen3, which the shop installed in August 2006. The following year, the in-plant acquired a Kodak GS4 Compact picture kiosk.

When Graph Expo 2011 kicks off in Chicago on September 11, in-plant managers who walk the floor at McCormick Place will notice one big difference from last year: the resurgence of offset printing. True, there were presses at last year's show, most notably in Presstek's booth. But three offset giants—Heidelberg USA, Komori America and Mitsubishi Lithographic Presses—all chose to sit that show out.