Rigid Signage: Rich with Opportunity for In-plants

As a value-add, rigid signage has potential to bring a wealth of opportunity for in-plants. Some are already taking advantage: According to IPI’s “Trends and Services in the In-plant Industry (2024)” report, 53% of in-plants reported creating this type of signage for their organizations.

The in-plant at American River College in Sacramento, California, first got into rigid signage in 2019 when the institution wanted to replace its old wayfinding signage across campus with new signs. Though the in-plant did not have a flatbed printer at the time, Printing, Sign & Mail Supervisor Don Reid saw an opportunity to use sustainability to justify getting that equipment.

“I saw [discarding old signage] as filling up our landfill, and figured that we could do better,” says Reid. “I looked into the costs of buying new equipment to do the job in-house and found that the project costs [to print signs externally] were about the same as purchasing all brand-new equipment. I happened to have the amount of money that was needed … and so I took that money and purchased all of our sign shop equipment.” The in-plant added a Canon Arizona flatbed printer and a Colex automated cutter, then repurposed the old signage by printing over it, keeping those materials out of the landfill.

Across the country, the Pennsylvania Bureau of Publications, part of the Department of General Services, leverages its Canon Arizona 2200 to create all sorts of signage for the Commonwealth, from directional and outdoor signs to point-of-sale signage — and lots of it.

Josh Klink prints ID cards for a state agency on the Canon Arizona 2200 at the Pennsylvania Bureau of Publications. | Credit: Bureau of Publications

“We pretty much run it one shift a day, and then every other month, it's probably safe to say that we run it an extra shift 50% of the month,” says Jeff Gensemer, director of the Bureau of Publications, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “The projects range from print counts anywhere from one — to some of the bigger … counts are 500 signs, if not more.” The shop even has received an order for 7,000 signs, he says.

Creating Rigid Signage

At California State University, Stanislaus, a PRINTING United Alliance member, the in-plant employs the Mutoh ValueJET 1638, a UV-LED hybrid roll-to-roll/flatbed combo, for its rigid signage needs.

Shawn Franks prints signs for Science Day on California State University, Stanislaus’s Mutoh ValueJet 1638UH LED-UV hybrid printer. | Credit: CSU Stanislaus

Previously, Stan Prints Lead Nic Webber says the Turlock, California-based in-plant was printing on adhesive substrates to be mounted on corrugated plastic or foam board.

“It wasn't until 2021 that I was allowed to purchase the hybrid so that we can provide a huge cost savings,” Webber says, noting that the savings amounted to $10,000 or more a year. “Now, we're lowering the amount of waste, we're lowering the amount of man hours. Less material’s being used because before, you would print on the paper, mount that to a foam board. If it wrinkled, you'd have to throw both pieces away, start fresh.”

While the shop is mostly using foam boards and corrugated plastic to create lawn signs, A-frame signs, and the like, it is also repurposing plexiglass partitions that had been used has sneeze guards during the COVID-19 pandemic. The in-plant is also looking into metal signage, Webber says.

“I'm working with my facilities department on testing some building signage to see what holds up better,” he says, “because right now, they've got two signs on a building that they used vinyl stickers on because it's not a permanent building. It's in direct sunlight, so the vinyl stickers are basically coming off.” The aluminum composite material (ACM) the in-plant is investigating may be a better fit for the job, Webber says.

All three in-plants use most of the same substrates — plexiglass, cardboard, foam board, and corrugated plastic — depending on customer needs. Plus, American River College and the Pennsylvania Bureau of Publications are already in the metal signage game.

Challenges of Rigid Signage

One of the most troublesome issues with flatbed printing is space. For instance, Stan Prints’ basement location created a few installation challenges.

“When our Mutoh came in, we had to put it in our freight elevator and it was too long,” Webber recalls. “We had to angle it so that the one end was lifted up.”

Welcome signs printed by California State University, Stanislaus’s in-plant.

Some in-plants have found it easier to put their flatbed equipment in a separate room from other machines. This is also a good idea when you want a clean environment for your wide-format devices, as Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Publications has found.

“In the main production area, we do a lot of envelope inserting, and we do the envelope inserting from full printed rolls,” Gensemer says. “So we're printing on rolls, and we're slitting and cutting, and we're creating a tremendous amount of dust. Whether you can see the dust or know the dust exists, that's what's out there. With the flatbed being so open, it's dirtier out on the main floor, so we protect it by having it in this room.”

Another holdup in production may arise during finishing. At Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Publications, production can get backlogged when signs go to the cutter, since the printer runs faster than its CNC router can create custom shapes. Over at Stan Prints, the bottleneck is even greater, since the two-person in-plant cuts all of its signage by hand.

“I've been trying to invest in a flatbed cutter, but budgets have been really constrained over the past few years, so everything we do by hand,” Webber explains. “[With] the ACM, I have to work with my facilities department because they're going to have to cut everything down, because they have access to all the power tools — which really bums me out, but I completely understand it.”

Advice for Other In-plants

Before diving in, Webber urges in-plants to investigate every aspect of the process, from the printing technology you want to use to the types of substrates required for it. This means talking to vendors and other in-plants doing similar work.

“You need to find something that will be the most versatile for what you do and what your company is working with and looking for,” he says. “There's nothing worse than spending the money on something and it just becomes a giant paperweight because it never gets used.”

Reid advises in-plants to take this as a chance to advocate for sustainability within their organizations. Buying power — especially at colleges and universities like American River College, which serves 100,000 students — can be a potent motivator of change.

“The buying power that we have here, I leverage by demanding sustainable options from our vendors that supply our sign shop,” Reid notes. “If you're not using your buying power to change the industry into [using] more sustainable practices, then you're not doing your job.”

So, does rigid signage make sense for your in-plant?

“I think it depends on your customers and the customer needs,” Gensemer says. “I use the word in our building that it ‘complements’ the other areas that we do. If you get enough requests for it — which we get requests — and a certain type of requests, then it makes sense. But in our world, it's complementary.”

In Reid’s eyes, adding rigid signage to your operation can turn out to be a huge cost-saver for your parent organization.

“If you just look at the cost of buying any of these [signs] off campus, it's not cost effective to do, so it wasn't being done [here],” he says. “Now that it is cost effective, we're able to support our departments quite a bit.”