Collators The Options Are Open

While the price of collators remains relatively constant, manufacturers recommend considering a few things before buying.

By Erik Cagle

You don't have to tell Aldridge Free about the benefits of having a new collator. For years he ran an old, second-hand model at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Central Printing and put up with a host of difficulties.

"We had a lot of trouble feeding certain kinds of paper," he remarks.

Sometimes he would have to stop the machine after it put together two or three books and adjust it. Other times the collator wouldn't run the paper at all, and the in-plant's four employees had to borrow people from other departments to "walk the tables," as Free puts it—manually collating jobs like campus handbooks and carrying them to the stapler.

All that is a thing of the past now. About a year ago, the in-plant bought a Duplo 4000 two-tower collator, and life hasn't been the same since.

"You have trouble keeping the bins full, it's running so fast," Free says.

The new model not only collates, but has an inline cutter and bookletmaker. It also uses suction feeding instead of friction feeding, eliminating paper runnability problems.

"It's helped us out a whole lot," says Free.

His in-plant is not the only one that has discovered the benefits of adding a modern collator. In-plants everywhere are finding them necessary for handling the productivity demands of customers.

"In today's competitive market, printers must be equipped with collating solutions that will allow them fast turnaround without compromising productivity," says José Alvarez, marketing coordinator for Duplo USA—and it helps, he adds, that modern collators are much easier to use than older models: "Unskilled workers with minimal training are capable of operating the equipment."

Collators with quick, easy and accurate setups are essential, agrees Don Dubuque, marketing manager for Standard Finishing Systems.

"Look for simple, but powerful, intelligent programming, ideally with an icon-based touchscreen that will guide you through setups and make it easy to cross-train operators," he says. "Few [in-plants] today have the luxury of dedicated operators for particular equipment."

Versatility is a key ingredient for serving the evolving needs of clients, according to Tony Cockerham of Buhrs Americas. Feeder varieties merit attention.

"One should pay great attention to the types of feed hoppers available and their ability to run the different types of product," he says. "Is the product to be collated single sheets, multiple pages, stitched books, perfect-bound books? What are the thickness requirements? Do the feed hoppers have quality checks such as miss-feed or double-feed detection?"

Ease of setup is a major consideration, notes Dennis James, manager of press planning and management for A.B.Dick. Variables such as the need for tools to change sizes and the time needed to switch between standard sizes impact the bottom line.

"Labor is the majority of the expense of the job," James says. "If it takes a lot of time or tools to make adjustments for stock changeovers, it limits the ability to be flexible in the kinds of jobs run. It also limits the amount of profits the job will yield."

In addition to automation, ease of setup and selective collating, Hans Max, president and CEO of MBO America, says collators that can accommodate the widest variety of material, from lightweight paper to heavy chipboard, are in high demand.

Vertical Or Horizontal?

Ergonomic issues can come into play when deciding between a short-run vertical collator or a deep-pile horizontal model, according to Donald Schroeder, vice president of sales for C.P. Bourg.

"Horizontal models are almost always floor-designed, deep-pile models and vacuum fed," Schroeder says. "These designs are more versatile, feed a wider variety of stocks in terms of weights and substrates, and most feature ergonomic designs for loading materials. Vertical collators limit quantity per bin, 2˝ versus 33˝, and material must be lifted by operators who fatigue easily when collating heavy coated stocks."

The ability to handle single sheets and signatures, plus specialty items like NCR, tabs and envelopes, is a desirable characteristic, says David Spiel, co-owner of Spiel Associates.

"One should also determine whether it is top load-bottom feed, meaning that it can be fed continuously without having to stop the machine," Spiel says. "No matter how fast a collator runs, stopping to reload will severely affect net output."

David Withers, advertising manager at MBM Corp., believes a collator that is fast, easy to use and versatile will contribute greatly to a company's bottom line.

"In many businesses, more than one person will use the collator at one time or another, so having a machine that is user-friendly is important," he says. "Look for collators with simple control panels that ensure ease of operation and indicator lights to guide you through automatic procedures. A good collator should be versatile enough to work efficiently with copiers, laser printers, digital duplicators and offset presses."

The functionality of the control panel is also an important aspect of the collating system, points out Mark Pellman, marketing manager for Baum. "Some collating products only provide indicator lights that either blink or are flashing, or stay on solid when indicating an operational error or feature. Each type of lighting means something else, but the operator has to get the operator's manual to determine what the light means.

"Determine how complicated the inserting modes and alternating bin modes are to set up. Determine how many individual adjustments are required when changing jobs on the collator. The more adjustments simply means the more chances for additional changes and more setup time."

Versatility, expandability, ease of operation and dependability are keys to ensuring high productivity, according to Cliff Thompson, of Streamfeeder.

"We design our Universal collator systems with a customer's current and potential projects in mind," he explains.

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