1,000 Signs an Hour! HISD’s New System is ‘Insanely Productive’

With 274 schools, the Houston Independent School District (HISD) is the largest school district in Texas. Its in-plant is equally impressive, serving not only HISD’s 190,000 students but some of the other surrounding districts as well.

With 34 employees and two facilities — which Senior Manager and Records Management Officer Chuck Werninger notes will likely have to be expanded — the in-plant was the first K-12 print shop to install a production inkjet press: a Canon Vario­Print i300. In 2020, the shop purchased three 64˝ Canon Colorado 1640 roll-to-roll printers and an XY cutter from Colex to handle a surge in demand for COVID-19-related signage.

“Then fast forward to 2022,” says Werninger, “and I got a marketing email from Colex about a system that has a flatbed printer delivering output on a conveyor directly to a Colex cutter. I immediately called them wanting to learn more.”

The flatbed in question is the DigiTech TruFire LT/X2 UV flatbed printer, which has a 5x10΄ table size, with double print heads to increase the speed. Werninger paired it with the shop’s current Colex cutter using that advertised conveyor system, which automatically moves prints from the press to the cutter without needing an operator to touch it from when the material is loaded until it comes off the cutter as a finished product.

The new DigiTech TruFire LT/X2 UV flatbed printer in action.

“Now we have something that is truly incredible,” he enthuses. “We have just one operator loading boards, and it is insanely productive.”

Amazing Throughput

He notes that for most shops that print yard signs — one of the most popular applications HISD is producing on the device — 100 per hour is a good number, or up to 250 an hour if the shop has several people dedicated to that press to keep it moving at top speeds. With the DigiTech system, Werninger notes, “we can produce close to 1,000 yard signs an hour.” And that is with just two operators total — one on the machine loading the boards, and another wrapping boxes — “because otherwise it all piles up too fast,” he adds.

Chuck Werninger (left) joins his crew in front of the new system.

The only downside, Werninger notes, is that the complete solution isn’t cheap.

“It’s not for everyone,” he says, “but if you have a lot of work to do, it’s [fantastic.] We could get an order for 5,000 yard signs tomorrow, and this is the only way to do it. And not only can we do it, we can charge prices others can’t compete with. We make money at it, our operators want to come run this machine, and they come in every day hoping to find more work for it. What used to take us several days now doesn’t even carry over to the second shift.”

Yard signs aren’t the only application being run on the DigiTech TruFire LT/X2. The device can print on almost anything — wood, acrylic, foamboard, etc. — and the in-plant is still experimenting.

“I can go to Home Depot and get a sheet of MDF [medium density fiberboard], load it onto this press, and I can put a full-color image on it that is outstanding in under a minute,” Werninger boasts. “And then the Colex can route out shapes, and I have a piece that is outdoor-durable for years.”

The shop is also doing more aluminum signage, he says, such as handicap or reserved parking signage, as well as unique political signage for the district, door hangers for classrooms, car mirror hangers that parents can hand out to friends to let staff know a car is approved to pick up a child, or double-sided banners to hang on poles around the various HISD campuses.

Opportunities Abound

“We’re doing stuff that was unheard of before,” says Werninger. “Take the Class of 2023 signs. Not only are the yard signs in full color, but we have exciting shapes for all of them, and we have them available for all schools. And that is something they can’t get anywhere else, not even a normal sign shop.” That’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to the range of applications Werninger and his team are discovering they can produce.

The end result is that the flatbed printer is opening up new opportunities for the in-plant to serve the district, and allowing it to do so faster and more profitably than anyone could have ever imagined.

“This press does 10 times the volume, no question about it,” says Werninger. “I would be shocked if we don’t double or triple our work [in the next few years]. It’s just a question of how quickly we can ramp it up.”
He plans to start doing more concerted marketing of the new capabilities by targeting some of the PTO and athletic groups, which want graphics to help support the students.

“We will start with football, but want to move to other sports,” says Werninger. “We can offer things they can wave in the bleachers, for example, with rounded corners so they won’t hurt anyone. Doing stuff like that makes great use of the press and the Colex, since we can cut it into interesting shapes, and not just offer rectangles.”

Further down the line, as HISD’s new administration gets settled in — a forced take­over by the state in early June culminated in a new superintendent, board of managers, and senior cabinet — Werninger sees even more opportunities developing. While the new administration is still focused on implementing its new strategy, over the next few years Werninger plans to expand the shop’s offerings further, with items like custom gift boxes that could be sent out with new teacher contracts, for example.

“I think projects like that would be amazing,” he says, “and as an in-plant, finding new ways to use what we know to support our parent organization is why we exist.”