Macintosh Solution:
Thermal Label Printer Solves
Mac-Based Printing Company's Dilemma
|
Interfacing thermal transfer printers to their Macintosh network enabled Westbury Press to accelerate custom orders.
|
by Kathleen R. Martell
 |
At Westbury Press, Inc., located in Englewood, New Jersey, a half-dozen
huge Heidelberg Speedmaster sheetfed printing presses can be seen printing
enormous quantities of point-of-purchase, marketing, and direct mail
materials for Westbury Press' Fortune 100 banking, publishing and
entertainment industry customers. |
Every day hundreds of cartons containing allocations or customized orders are picked and packed, labeled, skidded and distributed to a multitude of regional locations or directly to
domestic and international end users. Westbury Press is responsible for
customized fulfillment and distribution and according to vice president of
administration, Barry J. Yarkon, "Every order is a custom order."
THE PROBLEM
Westbury Press depends on all of its
printing and bindery equipment to be operational and
maintenance free, including its label printers. So it
was no easy task when the time can to replace their
obsolete 9-pin dot matrix printers with a more efficient
printing technology. They needed a new solution.
|
IN SEARCH OF A SOLUTION
They searched for a thermal transfer printer that could be interfaced
to their Macintosh-based Ethernet 10-BaseT local network that connects 24
PowerMac workstations and workgroup laser printers with over 50 on-line
databases hosted by FileMaker, Inc.'s FileMaker Pro Server database
engine. According to Yarkon, their alternatives were "spool over to a
PC-based print server that meant changing the existing configuration and
introducing a Windows-based platform or live with the label processing
bottleneck because we didn't have a better way to print using our existing
network."
|
 |
 |
Neither alternative was acceptable to Sandy Zenker,
president of this successful third generation
family-owned business, so Yarkon began a three-month
long search for an industrial quality, high-speed
thermal transfer printer. As he puts it, "I refused to
give up. There had to be a Mac-based solution out
there." And there was. Yarkon found the solution to
their connectivity problem by using IntelliTech
International's Model 412 IntelliBar label printers.
|
Each IntelliBar Model 412 printer is connected via
its parallel port to a Power PrintPro interface
module--a LocalTalk-to-parallel interface with
full-featured drivers that enable Mac computers to share
one PC-compatible printer. This interface module is
connected to a Micro Asante Print AppleTalk/Ethernet
bridge. These plug directly into a port on Westbury
Press' 10-baseT Ethernet hub creating an electronic
connection to their Power Macintosh server and to the
rest of the network's workstations.
|
|
 |
"If I did not find IntelliTech, I couldn't do this,"
stated Yarkon, "because the IntelliBar thermal printers
were the only devices out there which emulated a printer
protocol the Power Print Pro could support (in this
case, Hewlett Packard's LaserJet III).
|
Using this popular industry standard printer protocol language enables broad
connectivity to virtually any computer system, such as the Macintosh, without
disrupting the existing software and hardware printing environment.
How has this connectivity solution improved their operation? This configuration provided an
elegant way to hook up a thermal transfer printer to their
existing network. "We are able to spend more time on
operations and development and less on the label printing
process," says Yarkon.
According to customer service representative Beth
LeWarn, "Switching to the IntelliBar Model 412 printers
enables Westbury Press to get large batches of
distribution orders out more quickly due to their fast
12 inches per second print speed."
"Also it eliminates having to use expensive
preprinted labels and allows for more detailed
information and graphics, such as barcodes, to be
put on a label," explained Maggie Mora, office
manager.
IntelliBar thermal transfer printers provide
high speed, on-demand printing on the widest
variety of labels using various combinations of
label stocks and ribbons. In addition, IntelliBar
printer's 300 dots per inch print resolution in
conjunction with HP PCL's font and graphic
capabilities, produces long lasting images that
are more durable and provide excellent scanning
capabilities.
"Don't take that printer away!" says Donna Wright,
administrative support. "The IntelliBar works so much better with our database
programs; it's made life much easier for us."
After printing over a quarter-million labels during the past
year, both IntelliBar 412 printers have been maintenance free and have had 100%
uptime according to Westbury management. And the best news is they get to keep
their existing network.
___________
UPDATE: Since the publication of this story, Westbury has
upgraded their network and is now using the new PowerPrint for Networks to
connect their IntelliBar printer with their Macintosh computer systems and
printing bar code labels without failure.
Westbury Press,
Inc. provides offset printing, customized fulfillment and
distribution services. Special thanks for sharing their success story with us.
|
|
