Coil Binder Saves Time and Energy at Santee Cooper

Santee Cooper is South Carolina's state-owned electric and water utility and the state's largest power producer. The ultimate source of electricity for 2 million South Carolinians, Santee Cooper is dedicated to providing low-cost, reliable and environmentally protective power and water for the benefit of all South Carolina.

Randy Sapko, supervisor of Santee Cooper Corporate Printing & Mailing Services, in Moncks Corner, S.C., operates his 12-team department with an annual department operating cost of up to $3 million dollars each year. This includes all paper for corporate-wide use, print and mail center materials and equipment, corporate-wide postage and employee salaries.

With more than four years of experience leading in-plant production at Santee Cooper, Sapko, who holds a Bachelor of Science in Graphic Communications Technology, is "in the know" on equipment and technologies.

In November of 2008, the in-plant installed, on Sapko's recommendation, a Sterling Coilmaster Jr., from Spiel Associates, a compact, high-speed plastic coil binder. This tabletop unit automatically inserts coil into the book from the first hole onwards. It then cuts and crimps automatically. The Coilmaster Jr. allows for the speedy binding of books with margins of up to 3⁄16˝, with round or oval holes. Users can bind books up to 22 mm in diameter at 500 books per hour without any tooling.

"The automation of the Coilmaster Jr. has bolstered our performance of long-run projects and, in doing so, saved us time and manpower," Sapko reports. "We do everything from graphic design to color printing to offset printing and wide-format production, so when it comes to the efficiency of our binding capabilities we require they are state-of-the-art and capable of fast turnaround. We secured this objective by incorporating the Coilmaster Jr. into our productions."

The Coilmaster Jr. was a perfect fit for Santee Cooper's long-run books. Since it began running at Santee Cooper, Sapko reports, the Coilmaster Jr. has functioned exceptionally, with no problems.

"The time savings created thanks to the automation of the Coilmaster Jr., coupled with the flexibility of the machine and ease-of-use functionality make it a definite workhorse for our team," Sapko explains. "The automatic coil insertion is a great benefit for long-run work, no doubt." IPG