Offset Stakes a Claim at Texas In-plants

2015 is looking like a pretty good year for offset in the state of Texas. Not only did The University of Texas at Austin install a five-color 24x29˝ Komori in January, and the Texas Department of Transportation add a four-color Ryobi last month, but the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston just fired up a brand new five-color Heidelberg SX74 with a tower coater.

As detailed in the March issue of IPG, the new press replaces a 20-year-old six-color, 29˝ Heidelberg Speedmaster perfector, and more than doubles the shop's output speed from 7,000 to 15,000 impressions per hour.

"I can makeready a four-color process job in about 20 minutes," boasts Donna Horbelt, director of Auxiliary Enterprises, Printing and Media Services.

Offset work, she says, makes up an impressive 68 percent of the in-plant's revenue. And because of the faster makeready times and coating capabilities of the new press, she expects that revenue to climb as the shop grabs more work that it previously couldn't handle.

Read more about the in-plant's decision to get a large offset press, and also about its new iGen4 90 Diamond Edition in our March issue.