Capital Mailing Services in West Sacramento, California has made a big impact in the five years since President Andy Cody founded the full service print and mailing services company in 2008.  Keeping a 24/6 schedule with three shifts requires solid management decisions to maintain high production levels.  The recent installation of two new Saber paper cutters from Colter & Peterson is a good example and serves as a bridge to impending improvements that will make the company stronger.

Capital Mailing Services works with many marketing companies and prints collateral materials.  They produce brochures, booklets, pocket folders and door hangers - including a local community magazine - on three sheetfed presses and two small 2- and 4-color Ryobi presses.  The 45- and 54-inch Saber X15 cutters installed four months ago replaced four older cutters that Cody said came with the business he acquired and dated back to the late 1980s and early 1990s.  The payback followed immediately.

“With the speed of these machines, we’ve been able to reallocate two full-time workers to other duties,” said Cody, whose 90,000 square-foot facility employs 150 people.  “We load, lift and cut quicker since the back gauge is significantly faster, and the cutters are now waiting on the operator to reposition the paper.  It was just the opposite with the old machines.”

Highly durable, the Saber X15s are manufactured to ISO-9001 standards with a new hydraulic system and new cut optimization.  State-of-the-art electronics include a Microcut system with a 15-inch touch screen and an array of programming features and options.  Very popular with over 30,000 installations worldwide, Microcut was another reason why Cody chose C&P, the largest independent distributor of paper cutters and paper handling equipment in North America.

“Colter & Peterson acquired Microcut and they have a sales and service office here in California, so I like it they are in-state.  Our mechanic also recommended buying the Saber cutters because they are low maintenance,” recalled Cody.

“Both Sabers have two gear boxes allowing for double end pull knife drive, which provides a more even and consistent cut.  The Microcut system records each cut and gives us historical data per blade so we can analyze and determine our maximum yield.  And because of the speed of the cutters, they have eliminated our bottlenecks.  We’re only running them two shifts when the rest of the plant is going three, so that impacts the bottom line.”

Cody said both cutters figured prominently in his decision with an upgrade to Agfa Graphic’s Apogee Suite 8 software.  The web printing PDF program automatically defines the best imposition for cutting, slitting, folding, binding and other finishing capabilities.

“We wanted the cutters to be part of this program so we can be as efficient as possible.  That’s on schedule to happen by the end of September.”