UV Coating for the WIN!
Filed under: Green Printing, information, Large Mailroom, Print Shop, Sign Shop, Small Biz Printing, UV Coating
The True Benefits of UV Coating & UV Coaters
The Quality is in the Coating…
Using uv coating on your printed products allows for colors to become more vibrant and rich. For example, all of your printed materials with blues or blacks in them will allow for a nearly wet-like appearance. Coating your products with a uv coater is one of the most effective (and efficient) ways to create beautiful, finely finished products.
Document Mailing without the Damage…
Do you print a lot of products that are mailed for your customers? Well, as your customer’s documents travel from post office to post man to post man to post office to their consumers, the document may become damaged or warped or even destroyed as it makes its journey. Using uv coating on your printed documents provides durable, damage-resistant products without lacking any visual appearance! Additionally, products that are uv coated are resistant to smudging and marking which allows for not only your customers professional presentations to look great, but yours as well.
Go Green, Stay Clean…
With regulation worries, an over taxation applying, uv coating provides an outlet for business owners to print and finish responsibly. UV coatings are free of solvents and do not emit volatile organic compounds, or VOCs when cured. This basically means 2 things:
1 – You’ll get a great PR value with not only your current customers (and the general public), but you’ll also get a distinct marketing edge as well for presenting to newer clients.
2 – You are taking the correct steps to help save the environment, and going green is staying clean.
Finishing your printed products with a uv coating system has now become more efficient than ever. ‘And with the overall high-quality, fast output of a uv coater, uv coating has never been easier.
Watch the video below to see just how fast the XtraCoat Mini UV Coating System (without lacking any quality) really is…
Wide Format Laminators and Dry Mounting Systems
Filed under: Laminating, Sales and Marketing, Sign Shop, Small Biz Printing
Wide Format Laminators and Dry Mounting Systems
Wide format laminators are disigned for digital and inkjet printers. Banner American and Ledco manufacture wide format laminating equipment from 38″ to 60″ machines. If you own or operate a sign shop or digital reproduction facility a large format laminator for finishing and dry mounting your prints is a must.
Wide Format Laminators for digital printing
Laminate and dry mount trade show displays, signs, vehicle graphics and much more. Apply gloss, matte, and textured laminate. Wide format laminators are available that run hot (thermal) and cold (pressure sensitive) material and dual application. Quickly switch from thermal to pressure sensitive materials with the Ledco Digital 42 or 60 model without waiting for heat up or cool down time.
How Do I Choose the Right Business Card Slitter for My Print Shop?
Filed under: Corporations, Cutters, Print Shop, Products, Small Biz Printing, Small Business
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.
Ah, the business card. Still a valuable business tool after all these years. If you’re a full-service shop, you’re likely printing business cards for clients that use your other services. If you’re not, you may be missing out. It’s a nice little revenue stream that requires very little work, and even less up-front investment. That is… if you’ve chosen the right business card slitter.
But how do you do that?
When it comes to business cards, you must consider volume and automation. The more volume you expect, the more automated you probably want to be. Automated business card slitters like the HS-3000 will cut and stack 1,000 cards in five minutes ready to box and deliver. When you’re doing cards for an entire company that’s just gotten a new logo or street address, the speed and accuracy of a machine like this comes in handy.
Manual models are still efficient and are certainly not slow, and they have the advantage of being extremely economical. Lloyd’s has a great selection of both manual and automatic card slitters.
The thing to consider when buying either model is the format in which you’ll print the cards in the first place. 8-up, 10-up, 12-up, gutter, or no gutter are all options. Just remember, the flexibility and speed your print shop has in cutting business cards may just keep your customers from exploring purchasing one of these machines on their own. These machines are so easy to operate, they’re also sold as “ideal for the office.”
How Do I Choose the Right Binding Machine for My Print Shop?
Filed under: Binding, Corporations, Print Shop, Products, Small Biz Printing, Small Business
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 print shop or office. It’s sometimes difficult to find the right machine to fit your needs when there are so many models.
It all has to come together sometime. All those pages in the presentation, the employee manual, the book, the instructional guide, the schematics… They’ve all got to have some sort of binding to meet the customers budget, the readers needs and a style that looks good. But, what kind of binding machine do you need?
Well, the answer to this one is a little trickier. You may even want more than one machine. First you need to determine the type of binding that you think you’ll use most often.
- Comb binders – cheap, effective. Plus, combs can be opened to add/subtract sheets.
- Coil/Wire binders – Comes in a variety of colors and materials. Allows the reader to lay the book open flat and turn pages a full 360-degrees.
- Unibind binding machine – Quick, slick and permanent. A steel spine at the back of the cover allows the paper edges to sink into a heated resin.
- Perfect bound machines – Most paperback books at your local retailer are bound with this method. It’s glue-based and leaves a nice sturdy spine.
Once you’ve chosen a couple binding methods that you’d like to offer at your shop, consider flexibility, speed and cost.
You’ll certainly find flexibility with a combo system. A single purchase will allow you to do both comb, wire or coil (depending on the machine). However, keep size in mind. With comb or coil systems, you may not want to limit yourself to standard 8 1/2″ x 11″, so investigate the machines that can accommodate 14″ or 17″ sheets. Speed is affected by manual or automatic operation and the number of sheets that can be punched at one time.
The most crucial consideration however, is the question of cost. What you can sell and what your customers are willing to pay for may limit your choices. A perfect binding system is expensive initially, but costs little in upkeep. The Unibind thermal system itself is inexpensive considering the nice end product, but supplies are comparitatvily high, per piece. So, remember not to merely look at the machinery that makes the binding happen. Look at the plastics and metals that make up the binding.
How Do I Choose the Right Corner Rounder for My Print Shop?
Filed under: Finishers, Large Mailroom, Print Shop, Products, Sign Shop, Small Biz Printing
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.