Paper cutters are an obvious tool for any print shop. Question is, what kind do you have? Or, do you have multiple paper cutters depending on the jobs you do? We’ll try to help answer the question.
What are you cutting at the office?
For a print shop, the answer is simple: paper. To dig deeper into the answer, are you doing simple finishing of individual sheets? Or, are you doing stacks of paper? In a print shop, it can be anything, right?
Every office needs a paper cutter, the only question is, which one?
Paper cutters basically come in two flavors these days – Guillotine and Rotary. Like many other items in this series of posts, you need to consider volume and speed. But, you also need to take into consideration the safety of your staff and how accurate cuts need to be.
Guillotine paper cutters are commonly found in offices. They’re sharp, can cut through multiple sheets with ease, and there are some great measurement guides on the working surface. Multiple sheets at a time speaks to the volume necessity, but often works against accuracy. The clamps and lockable gauges of the Kutrimmer tabletop trimmer assist with accuracy, but its most impressive additions are safety features. Different models of guillotine cutters basically allow for larger sheets and more working space.
For big stacks of paper, you may need a hydraulic paper cutter that can do big projects with an accurate cut. The advantage today is many of the machines are programmable, have the best safety mechanisms and no longer require a lot of skill to operate them. The biggest challenge is teaching someone what direction to turn the stack to cut it properly. MBM and Formax offer large guillotine paper cutters that can handle large volume projects and large stacks of paper.
The most accurate cuts will always be made with Rotary cutters. My personal fav is sold at Lloyd’s. The Roll-Blade rotary trimmer not only has great measurement guides and a self-sharpening tungsten blade, but it also cuts through cardboard and some plastic with just as much accuracy a it does with paper. And, unless you’re really trying, it’s virtually impossible to cut yourself with this rotary.
