Learning to run a folding machine can be a little overwhelming, especially if you’re thrust directly into a bindery department production environment without much training. I remember my first day on the job being shown the antique Baum folding machine and thinking, “Seriously now…that thing actually folds paper?”
A previous Bindery Success blog article discussed tips on getting better register when running oblong sheets. This next technique was submitted to our Bindery Success newsletter by Martin Smith of The Journeyman Press in MA.
Whatever your circumstances, you know its time to step it up to the next level of productivity on this important piece of bindery equipment. These days you truly can’t afford to get less than maximum productivity from every single piece of equipment in your shop.
In working with thousands of bindery and printing businesses around the globe, we see many excellent bindery practices. We also witness far too many sloppy, unproductive habits that rob everyone involved of any chance at real success.
One critical trait that stands out in the good operators, as fast and productive as they might be, is they never stop trying to improve. It’s in this spirit of continuous education and improvement that we put an ebook together called How to Get the Most from Your Folding Machine Operators - 6 Nuts and Bolts Steps to Boost Productivity and Profits
Trimming a folded piece two or more up is a great way to increase folding machine productivity. Yet the very act of trimming the pieces to their final size is a process that sometimes presents challenges.
If you've ever had to fold reply envelopes for inserting in a saddle stitched book, then you understand suffering. You’ve got it all working against you:
Perhaps you wince at the thought of replacing fold rollers. “What...spend thousands of dollars on recovering rollers?? Naw, just stick some tape on them and we'll be fine.”
When I was a bindery department supervisor, I’d occasionally hear this at our production meetings, “Don’t worry, Andre will fix it." 'It' could be any number of errors, large or small…a job backed up incorrectly, shortages, poor register, inks that didn’t dry, lack of production time or an incorrect imposition.
If your folding machine or scoring machine work area is littered with un-used scoring devices, or if you have obsolete scoring tools for which parts are no longer available, you’ll want to check out our new Never-Say-Die Trade-In Program. Depending on what you want to trade in, we’ll give you at least $100.00 and up to $750.00 credit on the purchase of any Technifold EZ-Fit or Fast Fit Tri-Creaser.
As regular as the arrival of fall, there is a persistent myth that drifts around the post-press aisles of Graph Expo. This year was no exception. Its source is any of a number of well-meaning fellow exhibitors. Typically an attendee will approach with creased sheets in hand, breaking the bad news to us: “So-and-so says knife creasing is the only way to crease a sheet. Rotary creasing does not work.”
We get frequent requests for operator and parts manuals for old folding machines. Usually the manufacturer has these available, but not always.
We thought we'd attempt to put together an archive of old folding machine manuals on our website and make it available to everyone, for free (within copyright limitations.) We'll even take new operator and parts manuals too; they often get lost in plant moves or when a machine is sold.