Thomas Reprographics first in the U.S. to acquire OCE's new Arizona 550 XT flatbed printer

Even well before the A/E/C Industry headed into a recession, Thomas Reprographics, one of the largest "reprographics" companies in the U.S. (which also makes Thomas Reprographics one of the largest reprographers in the world), Thomas had expanded its business into the non-AEC "color services" sector. I had the opportunity to visit Thomas' main-plant facility a few years ago and observed some of their non-AEC jobs running on a Xerox IGEN (small-format color) system and on a grand-format printer.

Here's an announcement about Thomas' latest additions to its non-AEC "color services" equipment arsenal:

TRUMBULL, Conn., Nov. 30, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Oce, an international leader in digital document management and large format printing solutions, today announced it installed the first Oce Arizona® 550 XT printer in the U.S. at Thomas Reprographics' facility in Dallas. This installation was quickly followed by a second Oce Arizona 550 XT printer placement at Thomas Reprographics' Austin, TX, location.

The Oce Arizona 550 XT printer is the next generation model in the award-winning Oce Arizona Series of UV flatbed printers. It uses UV curable inks and Oce VariaDot™ imaging technology to deliver near-photographic image quality for nearly any application. Designed as a true flatbed system, it can print on a wide variety of oversized rigid substrates up to 98.4 by 120 inches, and offers a flexible media printing option for roll-based media up to 86.6 inches wide. The Oce Arizona 550 XT printer features a Production print mode of up to 462 square feet per hour on rigid media without sacrificing any of the award-winning print quality for which the Oce Arizona Series is famous.

Trevor Hansen, Director of Product Marketing at Thomas Reprographics, cites quality improvement, ink cost savings, labor savings, and the ability to offer a wide range of output as key features of the Oce Arizona Series printers installed at various Thomas Reprographics' locations. In addition to the two new Oce Arizona 550 XT models, an Oce Arizona 250 GT printer is installed at the Phoenix location; an Oce Arizona 350 GT printer is at the Minneapolis facility; and another Oce Arizona 350 GT printer is in the Miami office. These are just a few of many Oce printers used by Thomas Reprographics to serve its customers in the AEC and display graphics industries.

"Because of the economy, traditional reprographic work for the architectural / engineering / construction (AEC) industries isn't growing right now," said Hansen. "As the economy turned south, the addition of the Oce Arizona printers to our line gave us the ability to offer a broader range of services. We're growing our display graphics business with our Oce Arizona Series printers."