Bindery equipment operators, especially newcomers, sometimes mistakenly blame the machine for a problem. Yet there is one important but frequently overlooked item which, when handled correctly, will fix a variety of common ‘problems’ with direct-feed scoring, folding and perforating machines.
Quite a few people have expressed surprise that we write about bindery and printing issues that don’t directly relate to the products we sell. For instance why would I write about guillotine cutters when our products fit folding and scoring machines, saddle stitchers, perfect binders and web presses? The question is a reflection of the tendency in printing to isolate ourselves departmentally—post-press, press, pre-press, production, sales, shipping, mailing, and so on.
Yet when you look at the big picture, it’s obvious that all these departments are connected. The first few times I had to “fix the job in the bindery” showed me clearly this was true! When one department does poorly, the business as a whole suffers. Our tendency to isolate within our department or specialty can quickly blind us to the big picture. It sometimes causes us to ask the wrong questions which lead to the wrong conclusions.
The first inkjet printer I purchased was a promising marvel of technology. In the first months of running a startup business, I was thrilled that I could now print a few full color letters or brochures in my own office. Then as I began running various designs, different types of paper and envelopes, along with attempts at mail merges, the luster of the new technology quickly turned into frustration.
Most of us are accustomed to hearing about awards, usually bestowed one colleague to another by institutions from within our printing industry. But how would we fare out there in the big, bad world? Graham Harris decided to find out.
They laugh when we start cranking the handle on the new CreaseStream Mini scoring machine. It happens every time. “Hey, does that thing come with a monkey?!” is a favorite quip, usually heard in the first two minutes and then like clockwork throughout the show. At one recent in-plant printing conference an exhibitor could be seen jumping around like an organ grinder’s chimpanzee in mock imitation of us working the Mini creaser, his buddies laughing like hyenas.
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.”