Offset Printing - Sheet-Fed

When University Printing Services at Texas Tech University made the decision to step beyond two-color production and into high-quality offset printing a few years ago, the Lubbock-based in-plant  chose a six-color ROLAND 300 perfector press with aqueous coating, from manroland. As word spread, more work flowed in and the in-plant pushed that press to its limits. Now, nearly six years and 48 million impressions later, Printing Services is preparing to add a second ROLAND 300.

New York was decked out for Christmas when IPG Editor Bob Neubauer went there to visit four in-plants: NBC, Metropolitan Museum of Art, AXA Equitable and the NY Presbyterian Hospital.

The University of Houston’s Printing and Postal Service department celebrated its 60th anniversary last month, an event that honored not only the in-plant’s longevity but its recent advancements as well. Over the past 12 months, the 30-employee shop has added several major pieces of offset and digital printing equipment, gearing itself up for a very busy 2010.

Heidelberg has restructured its business, resulting in head of sales Jurgen Rautert leaving the company after nearly two decades. Overall sales responsibility has been handed over to chief executive Bernhard Schreier.

Scheduled maintenance can forestall major breakdowns, but demands for keeping production online, especially during peak production periods, find pressroom managers pressured to put off maintenance until later. When “later” arrives, though, that kind of procrastinator thinking can devastate the bottom line.

Take a quick tour of the PRINT 09 show floor with IPG Editor Bob Neubauer.

The 2008 National Government Publishing Association conference brought 82 in-plant managers to Belleview, Wash. Here's a look back.

AFTER STARTING up an extensive digital in-plant almost three years ago, the Church of Scientology has decided to replicate this success with an even more ambitious in-house printing operation. Just a few months from now the church plans to open a new offset printing plant in Commerce, Calif., 15 minutes from downtown Los Angeles.

WHEN ZENYATTA shot from the back of the pack to the lead in the final stretch to claim her 13th straight win in last month's Lady's Secret Stakes, the thousands of fans in the stands at Santa Anita Park, in Arcadia, Calif., weren't the only ones cheering. Underneath the grandstand, with the sound of a Goss Community web press churning away behind them, the crew of Santa Anita's in-plant was crowded around a TV monitor, watching the $300,000, nail-biter of a race unfold.

Technologies for sheetfed perfecting have been on the market for more than 30 years. All of the companies AMERICAN PRINTER contacted already had the capability prior to their most recent installations of equipment for one-pass, two-sided printing.