State of Ohio Upgrades Wide-format, Digital Press

It’s the panoramic poster of downtown Columbus that really catches customers’ eyes. Hanging on a back wall of the Ohio Office of State Printing and Mail Services facility, the 13-foot-long poster does a superb job of showing off the in-plant’s new wide-format printing capabilities.

“Everybody is just awed by that,” remarks Dan Boyle, administrative officer.

In September, the 70-employee state printing and mailing operation installed a 42˝ Océ ColorWave 650 and greatly expanded its wide-format business, focusing on larger-sized posters and banners than the shop’s previous 24˝ Canon imagePrograf W6400 could produce. The ColorWave 650 can print on a variety of substrates, such as Tyvek and polypropylene, allowing the in-plant to print outdoor signage. The in-plant is also now printing banners and mounting them on retractable banner stands, a new service that is generating a lot of interest.

“It’s going to really open up a lot of possibilities for our customers,” says Boyle.

He likes the ColorWave 650’s instant-dry Océ CrystalPoint technology, which converts solid toner “pearls” into a gel that is jetted and crystallized onto paper or other media.

“It’s dry immediately, so when it’s coming off that press, there’s no wait time at all if you want to laminate,” he says.

To handle that lamination, the in-plant has added a new 44˝ GBC Spire III hot/cold laminator, replacing its old pouch laminator. They are laminating prints to a variety of substrates, such as foam core, gator board and sintra.

“I knew that if we were going to get into wide-format printing, we also needed to get a wider-format laminator,” Boyle explains.

The in-plant can provide both one- and two-side lamination, and mount to any substrate up to 2˝ thick, he says.

Armed with the printer and laminator combination, the in-plant is producing posters for events, directional signage, process flow charts, photo enlargements, permanent interior display signage and more.

“It’s starting to sell itself,” Boyle says of the shop’s wide-format printing service.

Also new at the in-plant is a 60-page-per-minute Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS C1060, which replaces a Konica Minolta bizhub PRO C6500.

“The biggest difference between those two machines is quality,” says Boyle.

The C1060 uses Simitri HD toner to produce resolutions of 1,200x1,200 dpi and holds registration front to back much better, he says. It accepts paper sizes up to 13x19.2˝ and weights up to 300 gsm. He likes the dehumidifying feature on the C1060 that removes moisture from paper and acclimates the stock so it goes through the device without jamming.

“The material coming off the press is flat as a board,” he says.

The C1060 is being used to produce training manuals, flyers, invitations, posters and more.

The in-plant has also installed a new Duplo 350 Digital Booklet System, replacing a 13-year-old Duplo System 4000. It can produce up to 3,000 booklets per hour.

Boyle is pleased to have been able to get the funding for all of this new equipment, after several years when funding was difficult to come by, and he plans to keep the equipment as busy as possible.

“We’re looking for different ways to expand and keep that business coming in,” he says.