Mesa Shop Expands Wide-Format, Upgrades Digital Printing

By Bob Neubauer

The following article was originally published by In-plant Impressions. To read more of their content, subscribe to their newsletter, IPI E-News.

When Joseph Barz stepped into his new job as supervisor of Printing & Design at Mesa Public Schools 15 months ago, he took a close look at the work being produced by the seven-employee in-plant, noted the dwindling demand for some of it, and came to a realization.

Joe Barz (left), supervisor of Printing & Design, and Matt Scoutten, print production lead stand with the new Canon equipment.

“I went to the crew and said … if we stay on this road that we’re on, in five years this shop will be no more,” recalls Barz. “It’s not sustainable the way it is right now. We need to reinvent the shop.”

That epiphany fueled an equipment and service overhaul at the Mesa, Arizona, in-plant that is destined to inspire growth. In recent months, the shop has added:

An HP Latex 335 printer and 64 Plus cutting solution
A Xanté X-55 UV flatbed printer
A Canon imagePRESS C10010VP digital color press
A Canon imagePRESS C910 digital color press
A Canon VarioPRINT 130 black-and-white printer
A Morgana Digi Fold Pro creaser/folder

Barz is especially excited about the shop’s upgraded wide-format printing and cutting capabilities.

“The combination of both of them will allow us to do so much that we couldn’t do before at a fraction of the cost,” he says.

The Mesa Public Schools Printing and Publishing team stands with the new Xanté X-55 UV flatbed printer.

From decals and stickers of school mascots, to a predicted deluge of banner work, the Latex 335 will be able to handle a lot more than the shop’s old HP aqueous wide-format printer could. And with 82 schools in the district, there is certain to be a lot of demand.

“We’ve had a lot of interest in schools wanting their front doors wrapped,” Barz says. He also expects window graphics to be popular, in part to block some of the hot Arizona sun.

The athletic director is excited about the Latex 335’s capabilities. He told Barz: “I would suggest you start looking for a second machine because I’m probably going to keep one of those machines busy the year round.”

The X-55’s ability to print on canvas, Barz says, will allow the shop to print photo collages of students or sports events to hang in school buildings. Printing on rigid substrates like Coroplast, metal, and foam core brings other opportunities.

“We actually printed the ceiling tiles in our shop,” he says. The diffuser panels over the fluorescent lights also went onto the X-55 to get decorated with images of butterflies. The in-plant was subsequently asked to print cloud images onto the ceiling tiles and light panels in a “quiet room” for students.

Joe Barz (left), supervisor of Printing & Design, and Matt Scoutten, print production lead, show off some of the work printed on the new Xanté X-55 UV flatbed printer.

The new Canon digital presses bring additional capabilities as well. The imagePRESS C10010VP has been decked out with advanced in-line finishing, including a creaser, punch, bookletmaker, and high-pile stacker. This and the imagePRESS C910 replace a nine-year-old Xerox Color 1000.

“I was able to add the 10010 and the 910 for the cost of what Xerox wanted to add … [an] Iridesse,” he says. The new devices, which the in-plant acquired from Fruth Group, the Phoenix-based supplier that provided the district’s 850 copiers, do not have a monthly maintenance fee, while the Xerox maintenance fee was nearly $1,000 a month, he adds. With the elimination of that fee, and the favorable click charge Fruth Group offered the district, he estimates the savings total about 10 cents per click.

“It’s substantial,” he says.

Having two color machines is also much better for productivity than just one, he notes. And the finished product looks nicer than what the in-plant was previously producing.

“The quality is a lot better,” Barz points out.

The new Morgana Digi Fold Pro creaser/folder was added to supplement the shop’s 20x26" Baum folder.

“We really didn’t have any way to do any offline creasing,” Barz remarks. The in-plant prints a lot of three-fold brochures, and this machine will improve the quality of the folds.

“It’s a workhorse,” he says.

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Bob Neubauer Author's page

Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 170 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.