Texas Water Utility In-plant Installs Presstek DI Press

By Ashley Roberts

In mid-2016, the in-plant at a Texas-based drinking water and sewage utility starting working with Presstek to secure a certified pre-owned Presstek 34DI direct imaging offset press to replace its two-color ABDick 9995. It was expected to be a smooth installation, despite the fact that the in-plant had to hire a crane to lift the 10,000-lb. press to its new home on the fourth, and top, floor.

Things did not go as planned, however, after what the supervisor charitably describes as a “big mishap.”

After raising it high in the air, the rigging company dropped the behemoth of a press four stories, leaving it lodged four feet in the ground. Needless to say, that press never printed again.

Now, more than a year after the installation process began, the Print Shop is finally operating with a second pre-owned Presstek 34DI, which arrived safely on the press shop floor in May 2017.

The decision to get the Presstek 34DI came after the Communications department decided to redesign its two-color monthly customer newsletter as a four-color publication. The in-plant prints about 20,000 of these newsletters a day for the utility's customers. Its old two-color press would not be able to handle the switch to four-color, so the in-plant decided to upgrade.

Although the Communications department is still in the newsletter redesign process, the supervisor says the Presstek 34DI is expected to be able to bring in other work that was previously being outsourced. The new press not only needs less setup and production time, but is capable of printing on many more substrates than the ABDick.

One of the main reasons that the Print Shop went with the Presstek direct imaging press, rather than a toner-based digital press, is the expected cost savings on click charges. With the high volume of newsletters printed per month — approximately 900,000 impressions — the click charges would quickly add up.

Another benefit is the press’s automatic setup and cleanup, which reduces labor time and limits the amount of operator intervention.