From the Editor: Professional Development

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Spring is flying by, and already on the East Coast we’ve had a few days of unwelcome summer heat. I’ve been staying very busy, not only with the magazine but with related projects like videos, research, and attending various events.

The crowded Canon booth at Hunkeler Innovationdays

I spent five days in Switzerland at Hunkeler Innovationdays, a popular European trade show that highlights finishing equipment, but also included a good number of production inkjet presses. Though it wasn’t an in-plant show, I did see managers from the U.S. Government Publishing Office. It was impressive to see so many large continuous-feed inkjet presses in one place. I strolled past a Canon ProStream 3000, a Ricoh Pro VC70000E, and a Screen Truepress 520 HD, all within steps of each other.

In early April, I attended my 26th Associa­tion of College and University Printers (ACUP+) conference in Lincoln, Nebraska, and spent four days chatting with old and new friends from schools all over the country. We toured the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Printing and Mail Services, an impressive operation. It not only had a full room of Canon digital color presses but also a pair of six-color Manroland offset presses. As if that weren’t enough, the shop was renovating a warehouse during our visit, preparing to install a new cut-sheet inkjet press, which was due to arrive in late May. A life-size printed replica of the machine stood on the installation site to give us an idea of what it will look like.

At ACUP+ 2023, Jeff Todd (Oregon State University) talks with Nathan Thole (Iowa State University) and Gary Warren (Fayetteville State University) after a session.

Production inkjet printing was a recurring topic at ACUP+. I covered it in my keynote presentation, as did Canon’s Jeff Sarringar, and Iowa State University’s Nathan Thole, whose in-plant installed a Canon varioPRINT iX3200 cut-sheet inkjet press last year. Since adding it, he said, ISU’s in-plant has enjoyed much faster print speeds, a more efficient workflow, lower print costs, and a greater ability to provide VDP.

Though attendees listened with polite interest, I didn’t get the sense that many were planning to transition from toner to inkjet anytime soon. Higher-ed in-plants have not embraced inkjet as quickly as other sectors; in fact, I know of only four university shops with inkjet, including the subject of this month’s cover story, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

To be fair, many ACUP+ attendees run smaller shops without the volumes necessary to support inkjet. Some of the larger in-plants are taking it more seriously, though. When I talked with Richard Beto of the University of Texas at Austin and John Sarantakos of the University of Oklahoma for one of my videos, both revealed their offset volumes have been dropping and they are looking more seriously into inkjet. Both schools are sending managers to the Inkjet Summit.

A roundtable discussion at the ACUP+ 2023 conference in Lincoln, Nebraska.

A different inkjet process — wide-format — generated most of the buzz at ACUP+ though. Several sessions and roundtable discussions covered wide-format applications, substrates, installations, and more. A lot of managers asked questions about installing graphics: how to train staff, whether the facilities department should handle this, how much to charge, etc. Some felt that installing graphics has become a necessary service for in-plants to offer to stay relevant and valuable on campus.

The ACUP+ 2023 conference in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Many attendees talked about adding a flatbed wide-format device too, though finding space was a common concern. I learned of a few in-plants that had recently installed smaller-footprint flatbeds and others intending to. Contour cutters were also on the minds of many, as was garment printing. Two schools recently purchased direct-to-garment printers to begin tapping into that business.

I shot a video in the vendor exhibit area, asking a dozen managers about the biggest issues their shops are facing. Some common themes: finding new employees to replace retiring staff; handling a steady increase in fast-turnaround demands; sourcing substrates; and finding time and space to bring new ideas to fruition.

I enjoyed the ACUP+ conference and the chance to catch up with in-plant managers, and I look forward to doing it again on a grander scale at the upcoming In-plant Printing and Mailing Association conference in June.