Inkjet Advice From In-plant Experts

During the Inkjet Summit, In-plant Impressions assembled a panel of four in-plant managers with inkjet presses from four different manufacturers to answer questions and share their experiences. In some ways they were preaching to the choir, as half of the managers in the room already have an inkjet press.

Over the one-hour discussion, a range of topics came up, including the ease of operation of an inkjet press compared with offset – an essential benefit in a time when skilled operators are getting hard to find. Kristen Hampton, who oversees the State of Michigan’s in-plant, noted that newer employees are not as intimidated about running her shop’s Xerox Brenva as they are about learning to run a folder or offset press. Chuck Werninger, of Houston Independent School District, seconded that.

In-plant managers listen to a colleague ask a question of the panel.

“I can bring somebody in and have them effective on the first day,” he said.

Jason Almand of Frisco School District noted that when his in-plant added two Xerox Baltoro HF cut-sheet inkjet presses, they used the same Freeflow front end his operators were already familiar with, making training easier.

In-plant managers wondered whether inkjet presses are truly “faster” than offset and if one inkjet press can really replace multiple toner and offset presses.

In-plant managers at a panel discussion during Inkjet Summit 2023.

“I replaced five boxes with one and … I think I have more capacity,” remarked Werninger. This is not because his shop’s Canon varioPRINT i300 runs faster but because it is more reliable. “The uptime is so much better that we get so much more work done,” he said.

Productivity gains also come from moving to a larger sheet size. Western & Southern Financial Group’s inkjet presses allowed the in-plant to transition from a 19x25” sheet to a 23x29” sheet, said Director John Bartik.

“We picked up an extra four pages, so there’s additional capacity there,” said Bartik. “And you’re really rarely in makeready mode.”

Inkjet cuts out other steps as well, such as press calibration, since an inkjet press, unlike a toner device, does not produce any color variance.

“With inkjet we don’t calibrate, ever,” said Werninger.

“We eliminated the need for press checks,” added Bartik. “It’s a press proof you’re looking at every single time.” His UV inkjet press produces postcards and mailpieces that are scuff resistant without the need for aqueous coating.

“The piece shows up in your mailbox like it left our shop,” Bartik said.

When asked about the minimum monthly impressions needed to justify an inkjet press, the panel’s responses ranged from 1 million to 5 million, with Werninger noting that during the pandemic, his shop’s monthly inkjet volumes reached 6 million.

In-plant managers at the panel discussion during Inkjet Summit 2023.

The ability to print color at a low cost with inkjet was important to both K-12 in-plants on the panel. Students “want full-color learning,” Werninger said, and inkjet let his shop provide it without a big cost increase. “The cost difference [between black-and-white and color] with inkjet is really nominal,” he said.

At Frisco School District, inkjet allowed the shop to consolidate both monochrome and color printing on its two Baltoros.

“We’d print the color orders on the Iridesse. We’d print the mono on the Nuveras. We wanted to combine those back together,” said Almand. “Inkjet was a way to do that, along with saving money at the same time.”

In-plant managers at the panel discussion during Inkjet Summit 2023.

Those with inkjet at the session advised maintaining the same pricing as was being charged for toner rather than trying to estimate pricing for various amounts of ink coverage.

All agreed that inkjet has allowed them to bring more value to their customers.

“We’re adding value with more personalization, and we’re marketing that to agencies,” noted Hampton. “We’re doing it quicker, and the quality is good, and I think that’s an added value.”

Make sure to test paper ahead of time, urged several panelists. Don’t rely on a vendor’s paper list. Hampton had difficulty getting some of those “approved” papers to run.

Audience member Bret Johnson, of Mayo Clinic, had words of caution for in-plants getting a continuous-feed inkjet press: “If you’ve never been in a roll environment, you better make sure that your vendor is getting you set up on an allocation.” When his in-plant added a $3 million inkjet press, it had no allocation of roll paper since it had never been a roll shop.

“I had to beg, beg, beg my vendor,” he says. For the first six months, the shop could only use one type of paper.

Another bit of advice came from Almand, who warned that climate and seasonal changes can impact an inkjet press.

“When you’re putting moisture on paper, you’re going to get some curl, you’re going to get some static,” he said. “If it’s too dry in your environment you may have some jams or print quality issues.”