If you were to ask me which brand of rotary paper cutter is the best, I would have to say that Rotatrim is easily in my top 3 favorite brands. Rotatrim paper cutters, made in the UK, have taken the opposite approach of many other paper cutter manufacturers. While many companies out there are looking for ways to trim costs and replace metal with plastic, Rotatrim has kept their same high-quality process for decades.

While Rotatrim has literally a dozen or more different models of cutters, they are ultimately lumped together into 4 different categories. These are the Rotatrim Mastercut MC Series trimmers, Rotatrim Professional M Series cutters, the Rotatrim Technical T Series and the Rotatrim Powertech PT line of cutters. I will explain what these different lines of cutters are and why they may be what you need.

Rotatrim was founded in 1966 and is currently the largest specialist manufacturer of rotary action cutters in the world. These British paper cutters are internationally renowned for their durability, versatility and safety. Their cutters utilize extremely tough Sheffield tungsten steel and are known for their excellent build quality.

Types of Rotatrim Paper Cutters:

Rotatrim Mastercut MC Series Rotary Cutters – The Rotatrim Mastercut MC series cutters, formerly known as the Monorail series, is Rotatrim’s entry level cutter. A cutting wheel sits in a housing that slides along a single square-shaped bar. The base features a grid of common cutting patterns as well as a ruler for alignment purposes. This paper cutter is ideal for home or small business use. While it is Rotatrim’s entry-level cutter, it is still far superior to other brands when it comes to quality. You can find our Rotatrim Mastercut MC series cutters here.

Rotatrim Professional M Series Rotary Cutters – This is the most popular line of Rotatrim paper cutters. The Professional M series cutters, formerly known as Mastercut, are increadibly popular with photographers, copy centers, graphic artists and other people that require absolute precision when cutting material. This cutter has been around for over 40 years and features a solid laminated MDF gridded baseboard, as well as twin chrome plated steel guide rails and a hand-finished tungsten steel blades.

Because the Professional line of rotary cutters uses 2 rails, precision is about as good as you can get in a rotary blade style cutter. A self-sharpening blade keeps the blade sharp and a grid / ruler pattern on the base makes it easy to line up cuts. You can find our Rotatrim Professional M Series rotary cutters here.

Rotatrim Technical T Series Industrial Rotary Cutters – The Technical T series of Rotatrim paper cutters are designed for heavy-duty use and come in lengths up to 99″ long. These cutters feature a stainless steel 1 ½” square guide rail and a self sharpening Sheffield tungsten steel cutting wheel and counterblade. A built in transparent clampstrip keeps material in place during the cutting process. Most of the Technical cutters can handle up to 4mm of flexible sheet material. This includes pop-ups, posters, vinyls, banners and more. You can find our Rotatrim Technical T Series cutters here.

Rotatrim Powertech PT Electric Rotary Cutters – The Rotatrim Powertech PT electrically driven precision trimmers are some of the most powerful and capable commercial rotary cutters available. These cutters utilize a Sheffield tungsten steel blade that is powered by an electrically driven steel reinforced belt. A pneumatic foot pedal allows for easy hands-free operation. The longest Powertech cutter is 99″, which can be used to cut posters, banners, vinyls, maps, blueprints and much more (up to 4mm thick). You can find our entire selection of Rotatrim Powertech PT Series cutters here.

Regardless of the type of Rotatrim paper cutter you decide to use, you will be happy with it. I personally love it when a customer purchases a Rotatrim paper cutter because I know there won’t be any customer service issues later down the road.

You can find our entire selection of rotary paper cutters here.

If you laminate a lot of letter-size documents, you may be thinking a 9″ pouch laminator is exactly what you need. While a lot of pouch laminators can be used to laminate 8 ½” x 11″ documents, there are a few tips to keep in mind that will help cut down on jams and bad results. Here are just a few of those tips.

To begin with, while a 9″ laminator may be technically wide enough to laminate a letter-size document, you end up with only ¼” wiggle room on each side of the document. From what I have seen, that can result in a serious jam if you are not extremely careful.

If you feed the film in at an angle, even off just 1/8″, the document begins to get more and more crooked as it progresses through the machine. What will happen, as the error becomes more pronounced, is the side of the laminating film will begin to touch the side, creating tension and pressure. This will often cause stress on the laminator’s motor and can cause a jam.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t ever consider a 9″ laminator. Laminating letter-size documents can be done, and may even be feasible for many of you, but I recommend going with something a little wider.

I personally like the 13″ width for laminating 8 ½” x 11″ documents. This gives you ample room. The wider 11″ width also allows you to laminate smaller ID cards, multiple smaller objects and more. You can even use it to laminate 11″ x 17″ and 12″ x 18″ documents.

Here are a few 13″ pouch laminators that I personally recommend:

• Intelli-Lam IL400 13″ Pouch Laminator
• Tamerica TCC330 Pouch Laminator
• Tamerica C-Lam 3306 Pouch Laminator
• Akiles ProLam Plus 330 Pouch Laminating Machine
• Banner American PL135-4 13 ½” Laminator
• Akiles iLam 340 13″ Pouch Laminator

Here are two great 12″ wide laminators, which are still great for letter-size documents.

Fellowes Jupiter JL 125 12.5″ Laminator

Banner American PL12a 12 ¼” Pouch Laminating Machine

These laminators should all perform well and produce professional results. I have personally used all the laminators on this list and consider them to all be great machines. You can find our entire selection of pouch laminators here. If for any reason you are having trouble deciding on a specific make or model, feel free to call one of our experts at 1-800-658-8788.

You’ll be hard pressed to find someone that says the economy is booming right now. Most businesses and individuals are strapped for cash and trying to squeeze as much as they can out of their budgets. While I understand budgets only allow for so much, there is one piece of office equipment you shouldn’t be cheap with…paper folding machines. I’ll explain why.

I recently had a conversation with a customer who had a broken MBM 87M paper folding machine. They were looking at possibly buying the replacement model, the MBM 93M. They asked me if improvements had been made to make it better and fix previous issues. I was a little taken aback. The MBM 87M was considered to be a decent machine and had a great track record. I decided to ask a few questions.

QUESTION: What type of fold are you creating?

ANSWER: We create a letter fold. This is being used at a university.

I thought to myself, “No problem here.” The 87M was perfect for creating letter folds. I decided to ask another question.

QUESTION: How many sheets do you typically fold in a day?

ANSWER: We will sometimes fold 3,000 to 5,000 sheets a day and then nothing for the rest of the month.

It was then that I discovered the problem. While the 87M was a good machine, it was never intended to fold that many sheets a day. The 87M, a machine that only cost a few hundred dollars, was designed to fold a few hundred sheets a day. Folding 3,000 to 5,000 on the 87M in a single day was like using a 1970 AMC Gremlin to race in a Grand Prix.

I went on to explain that they would probably experience the same issues with the MBM 93M. They informed me that their university was cash strapped and they couldn’t afford much more.  I went on to explain that they needed to at least go with a folding machine like the Intelli-Fold DE-102AF. This folding machine, while not designed for high-volume paper folding, can handle a few thousand sheets in a day every so often without breaking down.

I can’t begin to stress enough how important it is to get a good paper folding machine. Trying to stretch a budget, and go with a cheaper product, will almost always lead to frustration and a short-lived machine.

If you are strapped for cash, and need to find a good machine for your money, please feel free to call us at 1-800-658-8788 and speak with one of our paper folding machine specialists. They are skilled and able to answer your folding machine questions and point you in the right direction. We want to provide you with a machine that is designed to hold up for years, not months.

You can find our entire selection of paper folding machines here.

If you’re shopping around for a binding machine, or even a laminator or paper cutter, one manufacturer you may want to consider using is Tamerica. Established in 1985, Tamerica Products Incorporated (TPI) has been manufacturing and distributing office machines for over 24 years. ABC Office has been selling Tamerica products for decades and they are considered a customer favorite.

Tamerica states that they operate under process-oriented principles of Kaizen, which is Japanese for “improvement” or “change for the better.” In true form, Tamerica is always making improvements and increasing the performance of their machines.

Tamerica is best known to our customers for their line of binding machines. Their 190PB, 210PB, 213PB and TCC 210EPB comb binding machines are particularly popular. These binding machines all utilize durable metal components and are known for their rich features for little cost. You can find our entire selection of Tamerica comb binding machines here.

A few years ago Tamerica released one of the first-ever alternatives to the GBC VeloBind bookbinding format known as SecureBind. SecureBind, found in their V2000-Pro, uses the same hole pattern and thermal process as standard GBC VeloBind machines, but at a fraction the cost. The V2000-Pro has an impressive 2″ binding capacity.

While Tamerica is extremely well known for their binding machines, they also manfacture an impressive line of stack paper cutters, roll laminating machines, pouch laminators, business card cutters, paper folding machines, laminating film and workstations.

Here are just a few of Tamericas most popular cutters, laminators and folding machines

• Tamerica TPF-42 Paper Folding Machine
• Tamerica Guillomax Stack Paper Cutter
• Tamerica C-Lam 3306 Pouch Laminator
• Tamerica TCC230 Pouch Laminator

Tamerica is continually developing new machines, so be sure to check back often to see what’s available. You can find our entire selection of Tamerica office equipent here. Please feel free to call us at 1-800-658-8788 with any questions.

If’ you’re binding children’s books, you probably want to use a format that is durable, tough and resilient. My 3-year-old son was recently given a book that was bound in twin-loop wire. As you might imagine, that book isn’t in such good shape anymore. When it comes to children’s books, a lot more needs to be taken into consideration than just looks. I will cover in this article the best binding machines you will want to use for binding kid’s books.

If you will be binding a child’s book using a binding element (i.e. Wire, Coil or Comb), you need something that is tough, can take an impact and will cut down on page tearing. The two most resilient binding formats are comb and coil. I’ll explain why I would personally use these binding styles for a kid’s book.

The one format I would never use is twin loop wire, unless you’re binding a teenager’s book. Wire, to put it simple, bends and looses its form when stepped on, thrown on the ground, stacked on with other books or is thrown in a backpack.  I have seen some books bound in thick-gauge twin loop wire. The thicker gauge stuff seems to hold up much better than your standard gauge twin loop wire.

As mentioned earlier, I would use comb or coil for a children’s book. Let me explain the benefits and the disadvantages of both.

COMB BINDING – This is my second choice for binding kid’s books. This format is made from tough plastic and will rarely break or bend. Comb binding supplies are cheap, costing very little for a box of 100 elements. Comb is also available in dozens of colors, making it a colorful choice for binding children’s books. The individual comb fingers are wide, providing added support to pages, making them tougher to accidentally rip out.

The biggest con to comb binding is the fact that combs can be re-opened, even without a machine. It is tough to do, and extremely unlikely to happen, but it is possible. I still don’t think this should count out comb binding.

Because you may be binding books smaller than 8 ½” x 11″, I would recommend that you use comb binder with selectable punching pins.

These are some comb binding machines I recommend for binding kid’s books:

• Intelli-Bind IB500 Comb Binding Machine
• Akiles EcoBind-C Plastic Comb Binding Machine
• Akiles AlphaBind-CM Comb Binding Machine

COIL BINDING – Coil binding is my first choice for binding kid’s books. Binding coils are made out of extremely durable PVC plastic. These coils won’t bend or break and can withstand the unforgiving wrath of a child. Binding coils are colorful, which kids like, and can be used to bind thick or thin books.

I personally recommend using 4:1 pitch coil for children’s books (4 holes per inch) as the wide hole pattern makes the pages harder to tear out. A 5:1 pitch hole pattern (5 holes per inch) have the holes too close together for kids, making the pages much easier to tear out.
As you will probably bind books in a wide range of sizes, I recommend using a coil-binding machine with disengagable punching pins and an electric coil inserter.

These are some coil binding machines I recommend for binding children’s books:

• Intelli-Bind IC310 Coil Binding Machine
• Akiles CoilMac-ER Spiral Binding Machine
• Akiles CoilMac-ECI Coil Binding Machine

Hopefully these recommendations help you in your book binding endeavors. We have decades of experience with book binding machines, so please feel free to call us at 1-800-658-8788 with any questions. You can find our entire selection of binding machines here.

I recently had a customer ask me a really good question regarding Lassco corner rounders. They wanted to purchase both a CR-20 and a CR-50B. Their question was this, “Can I use the CR-20 die on the CR-50B and vice versa?” This was a great question and one I didn’t have the answer to, so looked into it.

After doing some research I discovered that the CR line of corner rounding dies will work on the CR-20, CR-50B, CR-50, CR-50P and CR-50XP. For the customer asking the question, this meant that the CR-20 1/8″, ¼”, 3/8″ and ½” dies can work on the CR-50B and vice versa.

The customer was happy because they only needed to purchase 2 sets of dies rather than 4 sets of dies. This ended up saving them money in the long run.

Do you have a corner rounder question? Post your question as a comment or feel free to give us a call at 1-800-658-8788.

You can find our entire selection of corner rounders here.

A poorly functioning vacuum food sealer can be an extremely frustrating experience. This can lead to lost time, lost production and unprofessional results. What can really be frustrating is when the sealing problem doesn’t always manifest itself or it is inconsistent. Thanks to excellent technical support from Minipack, we have come up with a solution for one of the most commonly seen vacuum sealing problems.

While Minipack vacuum sealers are some of the most reliable on the market, as with any mechanical device, some problems can arise. If the sealing bar on your MVS vacuum sealer is experiencing issues, you may be having problems with the bellows. The bellows are typically located underneath the sealing bin on a chamber vacuum sealer.

Poorly functioning bellows typically manifest themselves when the sealing bar begins to have issues. Many of these issues include:

• Loss of continuity
• Loss of bag vacuum
• Inconsistent sloppy seal
• Raises unevenly
• Lacks contact with Red Lid Striker

Why are the bellows going bad? This is usually a result of moisture or liquid working its way into the bellows. While Minipack vacuum food sealers can be used with liquid, you are less likely to have issues if you use a liquid tray. Using a flat bin, without any upright bag support, can lead to spills. Contact us at 1-800-658-8788 for information on getting a liquid tray for your Minipack MVS vacuum sealer.

While you can replace the bellows, Minipack recently released a rebuild kit that will save you a lot of money. The rebuild process is simple enough that most people can handle it on their own without the need of a Service Technician or a Service Department. We will be posting rebuilt kit instructions on our blog soon.

You can order a bellow rebuild kit for your Minipack MVS vacuum sealer by calling 1-800-658-8788 x129 by speaking with our Service Technician. You can find our entire selection of vacuum food sealers here.

If you own a paper folding machine, or would like to know how one works, you have come to the right spot. I have 11 years experience using folding machines, both friction and air-suction styles. About a week ago I got an opportunity to use an Intelli-Fold DE-172AF and film it. As part of this video demo, I set up an created each of the 6 most common paper folds. This includes the single fold, letter fold, Z fold, double parallel fold, gate fold and half accordion fold.

Creating folds on a paper folding machine is remarkably easy and saves an amazing amount of time. Folds created on a folding machine are far more accurate, aligned and professional. I also appreciate the lack of paper cuts.

Here is a visual representation of each of these folds:

In the video demo, I go through how to set up each of the folding plates for these types of folds. I have found that once you know how to use one paper folding machine, they are all very similar in setup and operation.

This is a video demo of 6 common folds being created on a paper folding machine:

The Intelli-Fold DE-172AF is a manually setup paper folding machine. This means that each of the folding plates have to be set up by hand. This involves loosening the strike plates and sliding them to the appropriate position and re-tightening them. I have found that this only takes about 30-60 seconds. Folds are clearly marked on the folding plates.

Once you know how to use the DE-172AF, you shouldn’t have a problem using other folding machines like the Dahle 10560, MBM 93M, Martin Yale 1217A and any other machine that uses manually adjustable folding plates.

One feature that I really like about the DE-172AF is the powered exit conveyor. This conveyor helps to slow down paper as it leaves the machine and also helps to keep paper neatly organized and stacked. This, in my opinion, is a nice advantage over other machines that simply spit the paper out into a catch tray. This is also nice for keeping paper in alphabetical order.

So who uses a paper folding machine? Many businesses use them for mailing purposes. I have also seen many people use them to fold brochures, booklets, fliers and promotional material.

At ABC Office we currently over 45 different friction-feed machines. You can find our entire selection of paper folding machines here.

Because we literally have over 30 years experience (company was created in 1980), we have some of the best-trained and skilled paper folding specialists available. Please feel free to call one of them at 1-800-658-8788 with any folding machine questions.

When you bind a booklet, presentation or report, you typically expect that book to hold up for some time…right? You certainly don’t want paper ripping out as you turn pages. If your comb, coil or wire bound document is experiencing pages tearing out, premature wear, pages binding or overall difficulty in using a book bound in these formats, you’ll want to read this guide.

Comb, wire and coil binding are all three very distinct binding formats, but they all suffer from similar issues when a book is bound incorrectly. While binding a book is extremely easy to do, there are a few minor settings, if left ignored, can result in a complete failure of a binding job. Here are the two most common issues:

Pages Keep Tearing Out: If you have pages that seem to be tearing out of your book, you are probably experiencing issues with your margin depth, which is how far holes are punched into the paper. As a general rule, you want to punch holes deeper into the paper when binding thicker books. Thinner books can have the holes punched closer to the edge. If you punch holes close to the edge, while binding a thicker book, pages will eventually begin to tear out.

Many modern binding machines have a margin depth selector that will allow you to adjust how far into the paper the holes are punched based on the thickness of the book. Akiles machines are especially easy to use when it comes to adjusting the margin depth.

Unfortunately not all binding machines have a margin depth adjustment. If this is the case, you will either need to deal with the occasional page ripping out, bind thinner books or upgrade to a different machine.

Here are three great binding machines that feature an adjustable margin depth:

• Comb: Intelli-Bind IB500 Comb Binder
• Wire: Akiles WireMac Wire Binding Machine
• Coil: Intelli-Bind IC310 Coil Binder

Paper Binds When Turning Pages: If you’re experiencing issues turning the pages in your bound document, the guilty culprit is the binding element itself. What you are probably doing is using a binding comb, wire or coil that is too small for the paper you are binding. What you need to do is use a slightly larger diameter binding element.

Many binding machines now include a diameter selection guide. If you’re binding machine doesn’t have this feature, you can get a good idea on the diameter you need by looking at our supplies pages. Our binding supply pages feature the diameter and how many sheets it can bind.

Binding Supplies

• Comb Binding Supplies
• Wire Binding Supplies
• Coil Binding Supplies

Hopefully this guide helps you out and helps cut down on frustrations. If you are still experiencing issues with your binding machine, please feel free to give our Service Department a call at 1-800-658-8788 x129. If for any reason you need a new machine, you can find our entire selection of binding machines here.

Are you trying to staple blister packaging to cards, header cards to plastic bags or are you trying to seal clamshell packaging shut? One product our customers finding extremely useful is our line of electric staplers from Staplex. These American-made staplers feature some of the best quality / track records around and can be customized in the factory to meet your needs.

We recently had a customer come to us looking for a way to seal clamshell packaging shut. They needed to place a few staples in strategic locations to keep the packaging shut for shipping and retail purposes. After asking a few questions, and working with Staplex, we were able to find the right electric stapler for them.

The customer’s clamshell packaging comprised of 0.0235″ and 0.0135″ plastic layers. These two layers, once folded and around the product, needed to be stapled shut. This involved placing two staples on each side of the clamshell, requiring a stapler with dual stapling heads. Because such thick plastic was being used, they needed something with a little extra oomph. They ended up buying the Staplex S-620NRDFS with RLD thick wire long length staples. The thick wire staples ended up being able to easily penetrate the plastic and clinch shut.

This is one of the above mentioned clamshell packages that were stapled shut using the S-620N.

The Staplex S-620N double header stapler (found here), available in over 8 different variations, uses 2 simultaneous stapling heads that act in unison. Variations include models with foot switches, machines designed for header cards, thick wire variations and more.

We offer a wide range of Staplex electric staplers (found here) that can be used for a wide variety of stapling purposes. This includes stapling plastic, corrugated cardboard, chipboard, packaging cards, header cards and much more.  Because these staplers are made in the USA, the build quality is excellent and parts / servicing is readily available.

We have decades of experience in electric staplers and would be more than happy to help you find an industrial / commercial electric stapler for your manufacturing needs. Please feel free to call one of our stapling experts at 1-800-658-8788. They will be able to answer your questions, provide you with custom quotes and put you on the right path towards reliable packaging equipment.