June 15th, 2015
When I started in printing, the type was being set on a Compugraphic machine, then it was waxed onto a board and then an image taken with a camera that was as big as my desk. Film was developed and then the film was stripped into flats and finally an image burned on a metal plate. Talk about labor intensive and it required a lot of skill. Today everything is controlled from our graphics department. They control not just design and specifications for Postal standards but also several pieces of our equipment, such as the computer to plate, our digital press and our paper cutter. Everything is programmed in the graphic department and sent to the various machines. It still requires a lot of skill but not as many people and it is much faster. It truly is golly, gee technology, or at least, it is to me.
Every time we are able to add a new technology in our business, it amazes me what all the equipment will do. I am still wowed by our new NeoPost DS-1200 inserter/addressing machine that runs a speeds of 12,000 per hour.
