BC&B Graphics fills its need for speed with new Colter & Peterson SABER paper cutter

BC&B Graphics does a sizeable amount of high visibility work for Philadelphia market and southern New Jersey clients. The action doesn’t get any faster than fulfilling high demand print requests for a prominent casino customer, where job creation and turnaround is often measured in hours.

Looking to keep up the pace for its finishing department, the Pennsauken, NJ printer called a trusted source. Since early August, a new 45” SABER® paper cutter with Microcut® Plus electronics from Colter & Peterson is turning heads. It is nearly identical to the unit that was displayed in the C&P booth at PRINT 17 in Chicago.

“The SABER is a Cadillac. It’s a fast machine, it cycles quickly and is durable, and the double arm pull action makes it extremely effective for us,” says Bill Eachus, Jr, President of BC&B Graphics. A co-owner of the business with Randy Gilbert, who founded the company in 1988, he indicated other machine benefits allowed his operators to get a running start out of the box once it was installed.

“We run two shifts every day, so we knew it had to be rugged enough to sustain the hours we run it. The accuracy of the blade is another strong positive,” he said, indicating it cuts all the work produced by three 40” Heidelberg presses, plus several 2- and 4-color Ryobi presses and a 5-color unit with coater.

The shop handles work for entertainment clients, among them the Philadelphia Eagles and Flyers, local museums and performing arts centers, Rutgers University and local colleges. Most of the jobs are booklets, brochures, newsletters, postcards and other marketing materials. However, it often requires a range of substrates. That’s another area where the SABER performs well.

“This machine is impressive how it cuts different thicknesses,” informed Eachus, who manages 28 employees. “We run everything from 50 lb. offset up to 18 pt. board and print many different types of material. It doesn’t matter if it is a 16-page booklet with soft touch coating or if it some of the higher-end personalized work we do for our casino customers, liked an etched Plexiglass promotional item.”

Eachus says he’s had a 20 percent improvement in productivity with the SABER paper cutter. Mostly it is due to the Microcut Plus system that speeds the process, from set-up to completed work. It is a big advantage considering the significant amount of work they do for the casinos that operate in 30 states. BC&B partners with a local company to handle mailings to the customer databases of the casinos.

“It is super easy to operate this machine with the Microcut program. It’s very user friendly and has a large 15” touchscreen to program your cuts. The automated knife adjustment saves additional time because it puts the blade right where you need to make the cut. The program tells you everything you need to do and does everything for you. When you factor in our operator’s skill level, that’s how we are being more productive.”