New Flatbed Pushes McMaster Toward Challenging Jobs

The 20-person in-plant team at McMaster University believes firmly in the mantra “people, processes, and technology.”

“It always resonates because it’s always so true, right? If you have the right people, the right technology, and the right process, you can pretty much do whatever you want,” asserts Nick Giammarco, wide-format and signage coordinator at McMaster’s Media Production Services operation in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

In this case, the right technology happened to be an EFI H1625 LED flatbed printer. Before acquiring it in February, the in-plant outsourced wide-format projects. That is no longer the case — in fact, other universities are now ordering from the in-plant.

The new EFI H1625-LED flatbed printer at McMaster University’s Media Production Services operation.

“The whole idea was, let’s keep everything in-house, and let’s see if we can do it ourselves. And now, every time we get a project that makes us go ‘Oh no. No, thank you. Let’s not do that,’ we always find ourselves pushing towards it,” says Giammarco.

As a result of the flatbed installation, the in-plant has developed a strong partnership with Facility Services, says Phil Poelmans, director of Media Production Services, and has become the go-to department for campus signage — everything from street signs to scrim signage for fencing.

As for assisting other universities, Poelmans says his team recently printed signage for the University of Toronto.

“We are partnered with many other colleges and universities across the country via CUPMAC [the College and University Print Management Association of Canada], and one of our closest neighbors at University of Toronto, we’ve been really working with them and for them ... supplying a ton of signage,” Poelmans says. “This is giving us, of course, the idea about trying to support more and more of our sister institutions with those services.”

Since the flatbed’s installation, word has spread about the in-plant’s ability to do everything in-house.

“The word is out, and people are saying ‘Wow, they’re doing all this stuff right on campus; let’s see what they can do,’” Giammarco says. “And I think because of that we’re getting weird requests like sourcing some tabletops that we printed directly onto for our local … pub on campus.”

While the H1625 LED isn’t the in-plant’s first piece of wide-format equipment (it also has roll-fed printers, plus wide-format cutting and laminating equipment), Poelmans says the EFI is “giving us a whole other dimension of work and services that we can provide above and beyond what a roll-based printer is able to do.”