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Five Tools Print Shops Can Use to Improve Profitability
You can run a print shop with an off-set press or a digital printer, but you can’t run a profitable shop unless you bring in-house the tools that will help you take projects to completion. It’s one thing to print pages, but what if your customer wants you to bind them? You printed 5,000 sales letters, but now the customer wants to take them somewhere else for mailing? You’re losing out on some valuable revenue by not having a couple extra machines around your office. Add extra profitability to your shop by offering each of these services.
- UV Coaters. Adding a UV Coater will give you the capability to apply hi-gloss, satin or matte coating almost on any printed sheet. There are many configurations to the available coaters on the market. Sizes range from 18” to 30” with a modular design to allow for added components like automatic feeders. This is also an environmentally friendly way to apply a finish to your printing. There’s even one line of UV coating that is 99.9% VOC free – exceeding all environmental air quality regulations. Add that to your marketing and get some new green-minded customers.
- Binding Machinery. Whether it’s low volume presentation binding or high volume commercial applications, binding machinery is a low-cost, yet crucial component to a successful shop. Prepare a presentations or proposals, books or newsletters with the look and feel your customers desire by having available comb, coil, wire or perfect binding. If you bind it, they will come.
- Letter Folders. Add fulfillment services to your shop. Every office needs to send mailed statements, invoices and other marketing material. If it’s going out in a traditional envelope style, there’s a folder to automate the process. These machines fold thousands of sheets per hour. There are tabletop models for low volume or floor models for high volume, but they’re all easy to setup and operate.
- Document Mailing Equipment. While you’re folding some projects, you might as well run an inserter for others. Save time and money by speeding up your mail processing. Inserters and pressure sealers keep your jobs in a neat sequential order so they’re ready for outgoing mail bins. Some inserters can fold and stuff up to five different sheets and BRE’s at 4,000 sheets per hour. Plus, a pressure sealer adds a whole new product type to your offerings.
- Laminators. Laminating adds durability and professionalism to any printing project. Toner, ink jet and UV inks alone are not very durable, but by adding even a thin laminate coating you can prevent ink cracking and insures a long handling life to a piece. Lamination also adds to the look and feel of your work You can impress customers and upsell projects like printing for photos, charts, posters and signage.
Improve your profits by adding to your catalog of finishing services. Lloyds of Indiana has competitive prices and a variety of models in each of these categories.
Why BIG Print Shops Should Use a Small Hand Scorer/Perforator
\Your shop is multitasking. When business is good, you’ve got 80% of your machines running 80% of the time. Your sales force is lining them up and you’re knocking them down. It’s a mix of new business and repeat customers and you’re very pleased with meeting everyone’s needs with a diversity of services. The big machines pay for themselves and are easy to justify in your business plan. But, what about the those hand-operated gizmos in the back corner? Do they ever get any use?
Big Payoff from a Small Job
Not every project justifies the use of a big machine. Sometimes the setup time alone is the same or longer than it takes for the actual run. And, are 500 pieces worth waiting in the queue if someone could knock them out manually in a couple hours?
You need to take a minute to reflect on the old theater adage, “there are no small parts, only small actors.” Sometimes the smaller jobs are the “rush” jobs. They’re frequently jobs you’ve charged a premium for, AND they’re jobs that a loyal repeat customer has brought to YOU instead of to the chain that’s closer to their office. Do it quick, with the same quality as a high-volume machine, and those customers stay loyal. Keep your bigger machines running without interruption and everybody wins.
Essential Gizmo – The Hand Scorer/Perforator
One must-have tool in the shop is a hand scorer/perforator like the HS-100 Handi-Scor. There’s virtually no setup and you’ll have the capacity to score and perf tent cards, brochures, menus, greeting cards, sales tickets, raffle tickets, business forms, carbonless and more. We’ve got this model and others at Lloyd’s. Check out the selection, and be ready to truly multi-task with efficiency in your shop.
Akiles Diamond 1 Manual Corner Rounding Machine
Corner rounding machines are great for, well, rounding corners. Sure, that doesn’t seem like much, but that can be important in print finishing when you want a professional looking card, document, or laminated sheet. The Akiles Diamond 1 Manual Corner Rounding Machine is great for doing
How is it Used?
?Not only can the Akiles Diamond 1 Manual Corner Rounding Machine cut through paper, but it wil cut through PVC, polyester, leather, and polypropylene. It’s ideal for rounding covers, pictures, laiminated IDs, and invitations. And the price is right for scrapbooking enthusiasts too. It has a 1 year warranty, and only weighs 5.5 pounds.
And How Much Does it Cost
The Akiles Diamond 1 is $134.95 at Lloyd’s.
Formax FD 566 Medium Volume Industrial Burster – Tractor feed, slitters, base
You won’t feel the need to turn up the Formax FD 566 Medium Volume Industrial Burster. You’ll be too busy trying to keep up with its speed and grace. It’s no figure skater, but it sure can glide through your jobs.
How is it Used?
The Formax 566 has some impressive stats. He runs 15 – 350 feet of paper per minute, accomodates paper 2 3/8” – 16” in width and 2 3/4” – 12” in length, AND can be used up to five hours per day, five days a week. This particular model pulls its paper with a tractor feed, includes margin slitters, and sports a nice base with casters to easily move around your shop.
And How Much Does it Cost
The Formax FD 566 Medium Volume Industrial Burster – Tractor feed, slitters, base is $9,895 at Lloyd’s. We’ll throw in free shipping and a gift with your purchase.
Formax FD 552 Low Volume Industrial Burster (FD 550 with imprinter)
The Formax FD 552 Low Volume Burster is a nice variation of the FD 550, adding an imprinter to its list of impressive feats.
How is it Used?
Not only does it move 200 feet per minute, it can run this way up to five hours per day, five days a week. That’s 300,000 feet of paper possible for a week’s work. The Formax 552 model does this with a tractor feed and margin slitters. It can accommodate sheets 2 3/8” – 16” in width and 2 3/4” – 12” in length. There are some cool options for this series of bursters like tri-color ink roll (for your imprints), a power drop stacker, photo-cell counter (6-digit), or a static eliminator. Mix and match to create the perfect machine for your application.
And How Much Does it Cost
The Formax FD 552 Low Volume Industrial Burster is $9,395 at Lloyd’s. We’ll throw in free shipping and a gift with your purchase.
For more information on the Formax FD 552 or to place an order, please visit the Lloyd’s website.