Heidelberg

With a centuries-old reputation for quality, efficiency and cost control, D'Addario naturally needs to keep a close eye on all of its package design and print advertising. To enable this, the Farmingdale, N.Y., company operates a busy in-house ad agency and in-plant printing division.

Like many in-plants, Arizona State University's Print & Imaging Lab used a home-grown, Excel-based estimating and job tracking system for many years. Though this eventually migrated to a Google Doc, to give staff better access, it was still cumbersome, and the job list was never completely up to date.

Not long ago, the CEO, COO and CFO of HealthSouth—one of the nation's leading providers of physical rehabilitation—visited the organization's Print Solutions facility, located 15 miles from its Birmingham, Ala., headquarters. The occasion was to celebrate the shop's acquisition of an HP Indigo 7600 digital press and an EFI Rastek wide-format printer.

Well known to in-plant managers for his frequent participation at in-plant conferences, Ronald Shepard has just been appointed National Document Sales Manager and Trillium Specialist at Xeikon.

In a move to gain a foothold in the multi-channel publishing growth segment, Heidelberg is investing in the German software company Neo7even. The new portfolio ties in closely with the Prinect print shop workflow from Heidelberg and is being gradually integrated into this.

Following the introduction of the successful Speedmaster SM 52 and SX 52, Heidelberg has adapted its product portfolio for the new market conditions, thereby ensuring it covers the entire spectrum of relevant applications. As a consequence, production of the Printmaster GTO 52 will be phased out from March 2014.

Farmingdale, N.Y.-based D’Addario is the largest music string manufacturer in the world. Deep inside the 900-employee, family-owned manufacturing company is a busy in-house ad agency and in-plant printing division, including a prepress department, press room and bindery.

Fujifilm Corp., together with Fujifilm Global Graphic Systems Co., Ltd. (Fujifilm), has entered a strategic partnership with Heidelberg in the area of inkjet printing. This will allow Heidelberg to gain access to Fujifilm's inkjet technology, and Fujifilm will leverage Heidelberg's strengths in engineering and manufacturing.

Paul Roberts thinks he may have found the next big thing for his in-plant: wallNOODLE. For the past couple of months, University of New Hampshire Printing and Mailing Services has been having great success printing graphics and signage on this adhesive, easily removable substrate from MACtac. It uses an acrylic pressure sensitive-adhesive so customers can press it against a wall, reposition it, and remove it without leaving adhesive residue behind.

“Sometimes it can feel a bit like the Wild West; orders come from everywhere—e-mail, walk-ins, fax machines and the mail,” laments Chad Simpson, the Graphic Arts supervisor for the East Baton Rouge Parish School System. “The artwork files might come in from one way, such as e-mail, while the print request form might arrive in the mail three days later.”