Paper Cutter: The Must Have Tool
Every print shop needs a paper cutter. No, let me restate what I said. Every print shop needs paper cutters. Different paper cutters for various purposes. You need at a minimum a guillotine paper cutter, but you could also use a rotary paper cutter. Depending on the volume and size of your work, a large hydraulic paper cutter should also be on the list.
The first question to ask is, what are you cutting at the office? There are a variety of things you could be cutting. While birthday cake may be something you do once in a while, it is not what you are cutting daily. You could just be trimming down sheets or photos for a traveling exhibit. Or, maybe you are cutting out stacks of pamphlets to fill the marketing rack in your customer’s reception area. Or, perhaps a client has ordered a stack of menus that need to be cut down after having come out the printer.
So, what is available?
Paper cutters come in two flavors these days – Guillotine and Rotary. Like most print finish equipment you may be purchasing, 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 common 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 speak to the volume necessity but often works against accuracy. The clamps and lockable gauges of the Kutrimmer tabletop trimmer assist with precision, but its most impressive additions are safety features. Different models of guillotine cutters allow for larger sheets and more working space.
MBM carries the Triumph line of guillotine paper cutters that can help with large production projects. The safety features on those machines today make it easy to train any non-skilled worker to operate them. Also, you can pre-program recurring cuts to assist them with measurements and training Formax also carries similar guillotine cutters with many of the same features.
One of the most accurate cuts made is with a Rotary cutter. The Roll-Blade rotary trimmer not only has excellent measurement guides and a self-sharpening tungsten blade, but it also cuts through cardboard and some plastic with just as much accuracy it does with paper. And, unless you’re trying, it’s virtually impossible to cut yourself with this rotary.
So, if you are running a serious print operation, you are going to need paper cutters.