Illustrating Old Tools with New Tools in Graphic Production

Pasto Agricultural Museum Display by Jaru Copy ServiceWide format inkjet printing has been a revelation for Jaru Copy Services in State College, Pa. Traditionally a reprographics and copy shop for engineering and architecture, adding the ability to produce full-color inkjet posters, graphics and signs to the mix has been a big business builder for the firm.

Operations manager Ed Weeden says the graphics side of the business has grown exponentially in the past two or three years, becoming a much larger percentage of Jaru’s total business.

“We’ve produced more between January and June of this year than we did all year last year. I owe a lot of that to LexJet. And, thanks to LexJet shipping, I don’t have to keep any inventory at all; I order it on-demand. We’re quickly evolving and molding ourselves into a one-stop print shop.”

A good case in point is the ongoing graphics project Jaru is putting together for the Pasto Agricultural Museum in Rock Spring, Pa., which is an extension of Penn State University.

Jaru’s latest addition to the museum is the 7 1/2′ x 16′ photographic reproduction shown here. The museum added the antique farm implements below and on top of the photo, which depicts how those implements were actually used.

Museum Display by Jaru Copy Services
This graphic display was also produced by Jaru Copy Services on TOUGHcoat AquaVinyl PSA, laminated with LexJet Performance Satin UV Vinyl Laminate (3 Mil) and applied to 1/4″ PVC.

The photo was reproduced from a 3″ x 6″ original, printed on a Canon iPF8300 inkjet printer on LexJet TOUGHcoat AquaVinyl PSA, laminated with LexJet Performance Satin UV Vinyl Laminate (3 Mil) and applied in four panels to a 1/4″-thick PVC board.

“The printing and laminating went fantastic, but applying such a large graphic in panels was something new for us; it had to line up perfectly. Chris Shigley [Jaru’s LexJet customer specialist] suggested I use a big squeegee so I made one out of the PVC board. That worked well and we had a couple of people working around the board to make sure everything lined up and didn’t skew,” says Weeden.

Weeden adds that there’s a second piece that will go behind a large hay maker. Jaru has also produced the smaller descriptive signs for each display, also printed on TOUGHcoat AquaVinyl PSA.