help!! best digital shop finsihing add on??

[kristianeyman]

ok, so i have had my digital print business open for about 3 months now, and have been blessed with good business. i attribute this to my clients that reccomend me to others and having low overhead and great pricing. so my next step is adding on finsihing options for my customers. i have 2 xerox 7655's, but i am thinking a guillotine and a uv machine would really provide a huge help to my business. reason being that there are many here that offer business cards with uv for 140 mexican pesos (11 US) gang printing style with a 2-3 day turnaround. i would like to offer 1000 digital with uv for 160 MX (13US) with a 6 hour turnaround. this is not the only area where i could offer the uv services, but would definitly help with building a future clientle and jumping ahead of the competition! so PP what do you think?

[Ultimate]

you can check the equipment from our partner, Duplo USA. The DC-445 might be a good choice for digital finishing. You can check it on there web site: DUPLO/The On-Demand Digital Printing/Finishing Solution
We specialize in imposition solutions and we can help to to build an automated workflow.

Hope this helps.

Ray Duval
Ultimate Technographics
www. imposition.com

[JayDA]

If you don't have a nice guillotine, that is an easy call, it will open up a lot of different options.

[kristianeyman]

thanks for the replys! definitly a guillotine! but also looking at uv coater or thermal laminator?

[Craig]

Skip the UV if you don't have the cash. Get a GOOD cutter it will serve you for many years. I am sure you can outsource the UV if needed.

[Printease]

I agree with Craig here. A good cutter goes a long way. UV is nice to have, but be sure you have the volume to justify it before jumping into it head-first.

Another piece of equipment that you might consider is a digital creaser. You will be amazed at the offerings you can open up to your customers by acquiring one of these relatively low-cost machines. I have used creasers by Morgana(No, I am not an employee of theirs), and they quickly became one of my favorite tools in the shop, even though they are very simple technology. I am sure there are other manufacturers out there as well.

Sounds like you have a nice little business going there, which we all like hearing about- it can be a very exciting time when you are just starting out!

[kristianeyman]

thanks guys for all the input! yes indeed its very exciting and somewhat scary as some days i am doing in excess of 1000 tabloids from just walk up business! i do agree that a 10-15K investment of a uv coater is a bit to swallow in my first 3 months, but i do hate outsourcing. that being said the reason on the uv coater is that there are only 3-4 unit here in my city of 3 million, and thinking that i could jump into the game of offering uv to my fellow digital printers. we also do alot of offset work that requires uv, so thus the other reason, that all being said what do or would you recommend for a guillotine? i currently on have 110V so i was thinking about a triumph semi automatic 20"? any other recommendations will be greatly appreciated!

[kristianeyman]

one other note on paper cutters, anyone have experience with a manual cutter vs 110? thanks again!