Xerox iGen4 Ups the Quality at UW-Madison
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has been having great success providing variable data printing (VDP) with its Xerox iGen3. Now, thanks to a recent upgrade, the 42-employee in-plant will be able to provide that personalized printing at even better quality levels.
In December, the operation installed an iGen4 digital color press. Operations Manager Geoff Larson has been very impressed with the results.
“The quality is much, much better,” he enthuses. “Solids are phenomenal on there. You can print the blackest blacks on earth on the iGen4.”
This has made the text books, magazines and other items the shop prints look better than ever, he says. The iGen4 is used to print books for professors that are sold on Amazon.com. The shop perfect binds them with its Standard Horizon BQ270. The in-plant also prints 90 percent of the university’s business cards on the iGen4.
About 15 percent of the jobs printed on the iGen4 contain variable data, sometimes used in some very clever ways. A recent brochure for the Athletic department featured ticket holders’ names printed on a Badgers jersey. The shop also prints personalized mailings for UW HELP (the University of Wisconsin’s Higher Education Location Program). These are targeted at high school students to get them to consider attending one of UW’s 26 campuses.
The iGen4 installation follows the addition of a new four-color, 23x29˝ Shinohara perfector last summer, which replaced a two-color Sakurai. The in-plant has calibrated its computer-to-plate device, proofer and the iGen4 so colors match from device to device. This allows the shop to print an advanced run of a large offset job on the iGen4 and deliver the rest later.
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 170 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.