Hammer Packaging continues label market dominance with fourth SABER Colter & Peterson paper cutter

When a sports team finds a lineup that produces wins, it tends to stick with what works. The same holds true for market-leading companies. Hammer Packaging has history and success on its side, printing labels for nationally recognized household brands that generate over $100 million in annual sales. To maintain their leadership edge, the 104-year-old company recently acquired their fourth SABER® paper cutter from Colter & Peterson, North America’s largest independent distributor of paper cutters and paper handling equipment.

With a Microcut® automated back gauge system, the 75” machine is the first used SABER XXL paper cutter Hammer Packaging has purchased from C&P. In the last six years, the Rochester, NY printer bought two other 75” and a 62” SABER from C&P. Installed in late September, the used paper cutter replaces a smaller 1980’s version Polar paper cutter the company was using, says Larry Ockenden, Finishing Operations Manager.

“Over the years, we’ve had several used Polar paper cutters from Colter & Peterson that have done the job for us. The used SABER we just bought is performing as expected. It’s a solid machine and we’ve experienced no downtime.”

Ockenden oversees Hammer Packaging’s Label Finishing Department and has worked at the company since 1973. Under Jim Hammer, the President, and CEO who represents fourth generation ownership, the company has experienced tremendous growth and expansion and now employs over 450 people. The SABER paper cutters are used to manufacture over 20 billion consumer product labels a year that are produced for the food and beverage, household, personal care, wine & spirits, and horticultural markets.

“All four of the SABERs cut labels measuring from 1” x 7” on up”, said Ockenden. “Bruce Peterson called me about the used SABER and I was interested when he said the machine didn’t have a lot of mileage on it. I’ve been impressed with the SABER’s double knife pull.”

Ockenden explained that Colter & Peterson designed an infeed table with a flip gate that front loads the SABER cutter. Evenly distributed air pressure guides stacks of paper from Hammer Packaging’s large-format KBA 7- and 8-color roll-to-sheet presses into place. The flip gate then latches onto the cutter to facilitate front-loading of the stacks of paper to begin individual cutting sequences with the Microcut system, which positions the back gauge blade to make cuts within 1/64th of an inch or less.

“There are typically 1300 sheets in a lift of paper. The SABER will take a 42” x 58” sheet and make a highly accurate cut each and every time,” stated Ockenden. “Small labels take longer than large labels; we might make 100 cuts compared to 10 or 20 for the larger labels, but the Microcut system memorizes these sequences and saves our operators a lot of time and effort.”