score/creaser advice

[mikebooks]

Hi,

I work in an in-plant for a publishing company and we are trying to make our way though doing stuff that we have always outsourced in the past and in just the last 2 weeks we have made a transition to bringing the full range of our 8.5x11 saddle stitch books in house. We have a KM 6501 for running covers (Carolina 10 pt C1S) and a KM 1200 for running the b/w text. None of us have experience with scoring digital prints and we need to purchase a machine and I'm hoping that I can get some guidance from some of the pros on this site.

Our volume is low - approximately 2000 sheets per MONTH.
Our management had looked at a new duplo 445 creaser with slitter to 2 side cut of the covers (we have trimmer also). But it was 15,000+ and they said is out of our budget.

As mentioned we are such novices we don't know what we need.
I'm told by a local printer that I have a contact at -
don't get a rotary scorer, don't use friction feed (will scratch the digital prints), don't buy a new piece of equipment. Not sure if all this is relevant, but this is pushing us to much more expensive machinery (due to creaser and airfeed) that seems overkill for our volume and needs. (when a machine does 4000 sheets an hour and we do 2000 a month...?)

Any advice/guidance is welcome and appreciated.

[TheProcessIStheproduct]

I would think for that volume and no budget, a old used friction feed rosback would be perfect. With some baby sitting you can keep from scratching, and I bet you could get one for $500...

[lfelton]

For that kind of volume, you probably just need a hand operated matrix creaser, like this:
Morgana Products Creasers DocuCrease 35 - 52

We have automated machinery costing many times more, but TBH a good quality hand operated creaser like this does just as good a job, just a lot slower.

[countmachinery]

There are a lot of used and pretty inexpensive machines out there that will do a rotary score. However, in all likelihood you're not going to get the results you are looking for on the digital prints with any of the rotary solutions. A skilled operator can usually get a rotary system to work on digital, but in the long run it's going to fail to prevent the toner cracking right off when it's folded.

We manufacture a full line of "creasing" solutions at our headquarter in CA from a small manual creaser to a small friction fed tabletop machine to the air fed machine. We are going to be introducing a new inexpensive, yet still automatic machine that would probably be perfect for your volume in the next couple months as well. Our EZCreaser would do the work you have and much more and with our feed system you're not going to get marking or scratching of your prints. It also does perfing and can even be used as a feeder for our UV Coater. However, for your situation if you wanted to start small we do offer a lifetime upgrade from our manual creaser to any of our automatic machines where we give you a full purchase price credit against the cost of a new machine.

As for the scratching issue. There are two kinds of people in the industry. Those who insist on an air fed machine and will never "prefer" a friction feed and everybody else who can manage to use a friction machine just fine. We have both solutions and usually it's just a cost issue. Both will do the job, but there is something nice about a good air feed system running quickly and smoothly!

As mentioned before a matrix or channel crease uses a die with an upper and lower to compress the toner down instead of "cutting" through the toner like a rotary “score blade". This will give you a nice even crease without the toner crack.

If you'd like to see more about these machines feel free to check out our website at:

Count Machinery Co. Machines Page

Feel free to contact us with any questions and have a great day!

Frank Flores
Count Machinery Company
(760) 489-1400

[Alith7]

We have multiple creasers between our 4 shops from the table top mechanical to the air feed automated one. They are VERY easy to use and work great on digital.
I would highly recommend for your volume that the table top manual creaser would be perfect.
either the Morgana or the Count. we have both and they both work good.

[HPC]

I know I am very "old school" here when it comes to digital, but I was just discussing this exact issue with a printer today. He bought a KM7000?? Anyway, he's having cracking issues with a rotary score machine. As we were kicking around ideas I did go over something that is very old school, and works for very small volumes. Using your current cutter, put the stack in the cutter, drop the clamp down, and use an ink knife to lay down a score. It takes time to get the feel, but it works. He use to use Litho Score on his clamp and hit the paper with his cutter clamp... I've never tried that trick.

We also have a rotary scoring machine which has multiple wheels on the bottom. This way we can use those to adjust how much pressure to lay down to get a score. The printer I was talking to has one also but only one wheel with several grooves.

Just some thoughts on how to stay in budget and get the job done.

[Joe Duffy]

I hate to say this, but I took a old table top 24" cutter, removed the blade and went and bought a screen roller from the hardware store for $6. One of the rollers is groved and the other is round so I could use the grove on the outside of the sheet and the round on the inside - worked great for up to a couple of hundred but the people in finishing used to get a good laugh when the table came out!