Connections
How Do I Choose the Right Corner Rounder for My Print Shop?
In this series of posts, “How do I choose?”, we will help you take a little of the guesswork out of selecting the best print finish product for your shop or office. It’s sometimes difficult to find the right machine to fit your needs when there are so many models.
For example, Lloyd’s has nine different round corner machines. There are options and add-ons for some, and others are simply manual. In each purchase you make, you should consider the following as it relates to your business’s operation.
Corner rounders are pretty simple machines. They basically make measured cuts on the corner of your printed sheets. This finishing method has always been popular, but more-so in recent years as print products mimic the style of online communications. It’s not often that you see an icon or a photo online with squared-off corners.
So, let’s look at application first. Are you printing posters or business cards? Are you printing on heavy or standard stock? The size alone may rule out a manual table-top rounder, so be sure to look at the table dimensions. And, heavy stock may require the power an automatic can provide – which also puts you over $1,000. If you’d like the option to cut through metal for signage production, you’ll need a specific machine.
For rounders I think quantity and speed necessary can be measured by the capacity of sheets you can feed the machine at one time (in inches). A rounder in the hobby category may only accept a few sheets at a time with a .04″ clearance, but commercial medium and heavy-duty rounders will allow an inch or more to be cut. Thicker cut, means you’ll be moving through projects faster. Do you think your capacity will grow or remain the same? Choose a model for 2 years down the road, rather than one you need today, because your needs will hopefully grow once you add this machine.
The frequency of your use will require replacement cutting dies, so the availability and cost of these parts should also be a consideration. You’ll also want to investigate the variety of blade sizes and designs available for a particular model as well. A wide variety of cutting options will also add to your flexibility and options for the customer.
Finally, consider maintenance. All Lloyd’s corner rounders come with a year warranty, but looking beyond this time frame consider your potential frequency of use and the availability of replacement parts.
To check out Lloyd’s selection of corner rounders and compare models, visit our website.
Why Your Medical Billing Practice Needs a Folding Machine and Inserter
It’s a highly specialized office. The medical billing practice handles all billing for doctors’ offices, freeing them up to continue to practice medicine. But the medical billing office ends up doing a lot of folding bills and stuffing envelopes.
For smaller practices, you may only have 100 bills a day, but larger practices can get a few hundred bills a day. And for smaller practices to become bigger practices, they need to be able to grow through increased production.
This is where automating your mailing process can really help. With a small folder, like the 87M Manual Tabletop Folder or the 207M Manual Tabletop Folder, or even the Formax FD 320 Automatic Tabletop Folder. These folders can take your bills and fold them into C-folds, Z-folds, or any other kind of letter fold. And with the bigger folders, you can hit speeds of 11,000 pieces per hour.
Or you can even take a step up and try the Formax FD 6100 Inserter, which will fold and insert your bills into their envelopes.
Now, by upgrading to an automated solution, you’ve opened up the possibility to take on new clients, and grow as you can handle new and bigger practices.
MBM 87M Manual Tabletop Folder
Don’t worry, the MBM 87M Manual Tabletop Folder won’t wear you out. It’s a nice little machine that will save your office time and money. And, despite its low cost, it will still crank out up to 7,200 sheets per hour.
How is it Used?
The 87M Manual Tabletop folder will accept 150 sheets at a time up to 8 1/2″ x 14″ and as small as 4″ x 5″ in size. Four standard folds are marked by color coded fold plates and their setup is the only thing manual about this machine. Otherwise, it will run through your sheets on two speeds and will stop automatically after the last sheet is folded. I like the auto-stop feature because that way I don’t have to babysit it.
And How Much Does it Cost
The 87M Manual Tabletop Folder is $409 at Lloyd’s. We’ll throw in free shipping and a gift with your purchase.
MBM 407A Automatic Programmable Tabletop Folder
If you’re looking for an extremely versatile tabletop folder, you’re looking for the 407A Automatic Programmable model from MBM. This model has six standard folds pre-programmed, but allows for 27 custom folds to be stored in its memory, ready to recall at any time.
How is it Used?
Other than its robust memory, the 407A is very similar to the 307A. It accepts 450 sheets at a time at up to 11″ x 17″ in size. It folds more than 11,000 per hour, and it features an automatic feed table ensures optimum feed pressure, so there are very few jams or adjustments for paper stock. The self-setting exit rollers ensure smooth ejection of folded paper and keep everything in neat sequential order. Check out the 407A Automatic Programmable Tabletop Folder for easy maintenance, durable all-metal construction, and the availability of an optional perforator or scorer.
And How Much Does it Cost
The 407A Automatic Programmable Tabletop Folder is $3,959 at Lloyd’s. We’ll throw in free shipping and a gift with your purchase.
Why Your Small Utility Company Needs a Folding Machine and Inserter
Off to the east of Indianapolis (our hometown) is a small utility provider. A friend told me he went in there once and found the administrative staff sitting at their desks, folding bills and stuffing envelopes. It turns out they all took one day a month — about 5 hours — to fold and stuff all the bills for the day.
“Why don’t you have a machine that does that?” my friend asked one of the women folding away.
“They cost too much money,” said the woman. “We have to watch our costs.”
My friend was stunned. It’s this short of short-term bureaucratic thinking that ends up wasting money, instead of saving it. Somehow, managers get it in their heads that it’s somehow cost effective to pay employees $12 per hour to fold letters or bills, put them into envelopes, and run them through the postal machine.
Let’s break it down and see why this is just plain wrong.
If you pay 6 staffers $12 per hour to fold bills, that’s $72 per staff hour. And if it takes those staffers 5 hours to fold and stuff all those bills — keeping them in ZIP code order, no less — that’s $360 per month.
But look at the for $10,395. Sure that seems like a lot, but consider this:
The 6202 can fold and insert up to 2,200 pieces per hour, or do all the inserting that six people did in five hours. If one person ran the machine once a month, it would cost that utility $60 per day to run bills.
And save them $300 per month, or $3,600 per year. In three years, they will have paid for the machine. Every year after that, they’re going to save $3,600 per year.
This will end up making their entire office more efficient, freeing up the stuffers to work on other projects around the office.