In-plants Share Inkjet Successes, Lessons at Inkjet Summit

During the recent Inkjet Summit, held in April in Ponte Vedra, Florida, all of the in-plant attendees gathered for a panel discussion moderated by IPI Editor Bob Neubauer. He questions four inkjet users from different in-plants around the country:

1. Chad Simpson, director of Printing Services, East Baton Rouge School System. Inkjet presses: Riso ComColor GL7430, two Riso ComColor GL9730s.
2. Tammy Golden, assistant commissioner, State of Tennessee. Inkjet press: Ricoh InfoPrint 5000 continuous-feed press.
3. Sylvia Palmer, supervisor, Reprographics & Records, Jurupa Unified School District. Inkjet press: Super Web WEBJet 100D continuous-feed inkjet press.
4. Simon Ortiz, Print Services operations manager, Intermountain Health. Inkjet presses: Ricoh Pro VC60000 roll-fed press, Canon varioPRINT iX cut-sheet press.

In-plant inkjet users answered questions about their switch from toner to inkjet. From left: Simon Ortiz, Chad Simpson, Sylvia Palmer, and Tammy Golden.

The in-plant managers shared their experiences transitioning from toner to inkjet, noting the reduced maintenance and increased reliability of inkjet presses, the cost benefits, the learning curve, the ROI, and more.

The panelists used inkjet presses ranging from walkup-copier-sized Riso devices to continuous-feed Ricoh lines stretching 75 feet long, including pre and post equipment. Simpson noted that his shop chose Riso devices as a relatively inexpensive way to get a foothold in the curriculum-printing business.

In-plant managers listen to the discussion and ask questions of the panel.

“I knew I had the potential to grab 20 million impressions a year if I could get something in there that was fast enough with very limited resources,” he said. “So, we went with the Risos. It was the only solution that I could get enough horsepower in the room and be able to sell the color at such a discounted rate to be competitive.”

For Intermountain Health, inkjet was a way to end the practice of using preprinted shells. Ortiz and his team did a business analysis to show the cost savings they would find by moving to inkjet.

“Obviously the cost savings with white paper in and printed paper out was there,” noted Ortiz. That analysis got the in-plant a new facility as well to house its inkjet presses.

Benefits Beyond Cost Savings

For Palmer at Jurupa USD, inkjet provided benefits beyond just cost savings.

“Our ROI is based more on students’ learning outcomes than it is on just a number,” she said. Inkjet allowed the in-plan to add inexpensive color to learning materials, improving students’ reading retention.

The discussion touched on the challenge of replacing multiple toner devices with one inkjet press. The resulting lack of redundancy was initially troubling for some panelists.

“I was very concerned about doing that,” admitted Golden. “I had to talk to a lot of people, my peers in other states, [who] kind of talked me off the ledge about that because, you know, [you’ve] got to have redundancy and backup.”

Bob Neubauer questions panelists Simon Ortiz, Chad Simpson, Sylvia Palmer, and Tammy Golden.

But she and other panelists agreed inkjet does not require as many service calls as toner devices, so their concerns eventually dissipated.

When asked about the quality of inkjet output, none of the inkjet users had any complaints. The Super Web WEBJet 100D at Jurupa USD prints 1,600 dpi, said Palmer.

“It's a nice print,” she said. “It's sharp text, it's detailed images.”

One factor impacting the quality of the output is paper.

“The best luck we've had is with our gloss and silk papers,” noted Ortiz. “It just delivers really vibrant colors and great quality off the [Canon] cut-sheet device.”

Because his Riso inkjet printers don’t print on coated paper, Simpson’s shop uses 20-lb. bond. He cautioned that it’s important to adjust the press for the paper being used.

“If you just [used] the standard settings of the machine, because of the type of paper used … you would get massive bleed through, so you have to go in the systems and choke down the ink to where it's readable without being able to read both sides at the same time.”

Start With Finishing

When researching inkjet, panelists advised starting with the finishing end, because the presses are so fast you may end up with a finishing bottleneck if you don’t adjust your finishing strategy.

Bob Neubauer questions panelists Simon Ortiz, Chad Simpson, Sylvia Palmer, and Tammy Golden.

“I would say work backwards, work from the finishing,” said Palmer. Her in-plant purchased its inkjet press as a package with finishing equipment. “And I would say, ‘don't do that.’ Or talk to more people, get a more holistic view of what's happening, because if one vendor is selling you this complete package, it's probably not going to work as good as [you need it to].”

Also important during the research phase, she advised: “Talk to your team. It's very intimidating, going from a toner device to inkjet technology. Very scary for them. Have them involved in the situation. Let them ask all the questions. Have them go with you when you're doing … reviews at different sites. Go to another [similar] site. Also, ask your vendor what their plans for the future are, so that you're not blindsided when they break up with you.”

Simpson advised approaching inkjet vendors with “a wide variety of files… to find out your actual ink costs.”

Riso ink is expensive, he added; about $407 per liter. “But even at that, with what we're printing, my cost … is $.0058 [per page]. So you're right at a half, a little over half a cent.”

“Toner devices are just dramatically more expensive to not only maintain, but the click charge,” noted Ortiz. “We've seen pretty aggressive ROIs on our inkjet equipment, so I'm thoroughly impressed.”

Maintenance Requirements?

Asked about maintenance requirements on inkjet presses, the two Ricoh continuous-feed users said their crews spend about 15 minutes per day, plus about 2-3 hours at the end of the week on maintenance. Intermountain’s Canon varioPRINT iX, which runs 24 hours a day, five days a week, gets maintenance at each shift change, for a total of about 20 minutes a day. The Riso printers at East Baton Rouge Schools, on the other hand, need no scheduled maintenance, said Simpson, but after every four or five million impressions, the waste ink tank must be drained.

The continuous-feed press at Jurupa USD also needs about 15 minutes of maintenance a day. “Once a month, they take it down for two hours, and they kind of do a whole top-down just to make sure everything's clean, nothing needs to be primed or anything like that,” said Palmer. “But it has a lot to do with the way they leave their machine at the end of the day. Because leaving the machine clean at the end of the day … they're running within 10 minutes.”

When it comes to availability of service technicians, panelists advised doing a lot of research. Audience members using Xerox Baltoro inkjet presses noted the availability of service is not as good as expected and they regret not looking into other vendors before making their decisions.

“When you're researching, ask your vendor what your service technician pool looks like,” advised Palmer. “Make it a common practice to talk to your counterparts.”

Because of the speed of inkjet, Palmer’s operation has more capacity for external work – even though her in-plant went from printing 15 million impressions per year before inkjet to 27 million today.

“We started printing for other school districts, our community partners, Parks and Rec, the city,” she noted. “So, we could bring not just the increased learning outcomes from color print to our district, but now we're bringing in a financial benefit to the district as well.”

The State of Tennessee’s in-plant was able to transition what had been preprinted inserts and start printing them on inkjet.

“It's so much easier for our postal area,” Golden said. “It's helped them reduce our SLAs and turnaround time.”

The benefits of inkjet aside, panelists said new inkjet users should prepare for surprises. To avoid some of them, upgrade your workflow before adding a press, Ortiz noted.

“Make sure you have a workflow system on the front end of your devices, because they are fast, and you want them running,” he said.

Unexpected Costs of Inkjet

Palmer noted her shop has faced some unexpected costs since switching to roll-fed equipment:

“Something that we didn't think about, and I'm having to think about now, is we have to get paper in roll position, because I don't have any kind of clamp that's going to turn it and there's a big expense to that,” she related. “Whenever I order a truckload, I'm ordering two truckloads, because they can't put paper on top of each other because it's in roll position.”

The panel discussion proved to be one of the highlights of the Inkjet Summit, packed with practical advice for in-plant attendees. In-plants preparing to make a move into production inkjet should consider applying to attend the 2026 Inkjet Summit, to be held April 27-29, 2026, at the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort and Spa in San Antonio. Fill out an interest form here.