Mid-States Graphics plans for today, prepares for future with pair of Colter & Peterson paper cutters

One up and one to go. That’s how things stand after Mid-States Graphics in Hanover Park, IL installed a reconditioned 112” Seybold paper cutter from Colter & Peterson in mid-June. Owner John Miller has high hopes when C&P is expected to deliver his new 65” SABER® paper cutter in September.

Both machines are outfitted with a Microcut® electronics package to boost productivity. A first-time customer, Miller approached Colter & Peterson after a recommendation from his maintenance man who takes care of Mid-States’ five other paper cutters.

“I called Bruce Peterson and told him what I was looking for. He said what I needed was the Seybold and he had a rebuilt machine that he could deliver in a reasonable amount of time,” recalled Miller, the hands-on owner who has run the company since 1984. “They did a nice job with the installation and the training session went smoothly. The machine is running well and doing exactly what we expected it to do.

“With the SABER, I had never seen one before but the guy who services our paper cutters recommended it. I liked what he said so I asked Bruce about it. It will replace one of our older machines when we install it later this year.”

Business is brisk at Mid-States, a wholesale provider of color critical inkjet media and software solutions to the graphic arts industry and photo professionals. Doing business throughout North America with customers throughout Canada, they also sell many variations of paper. The Proof Line™ brand of high quality inkjet paper and media is why the need for six paper cutters. Miller said the decision to invest in the SABER and larger Seybold were to satisfy customer demand for bigger sheet sizes.

“We sell a lot of paper and films, with different types of substrates and sizes,” indicated Miller, whose operation in the northwest suburbs outside Chicago employs 30 people.

You name the type of paper and Mid-States sells and trims it.With the large volumes, that’s where the Microcut automated system more than pulls its weight. With touchscreen programming controls and a networking feature to convert JDF files, the cutting process is streamlined from make-ready through the cutting sequences.

Microcut places the back gauge of the knife into the correct position each and every time for highly accurate cuts within 1/64th of an inch. It also allows for instant recalls for later jobs and can trim multiple sheets at one time, compared to many other models that can handle only one sheet at a time. That offers a huge advantage from both a time and savings perspective.

“It’s only been a couple of weeks,” sums up Miller, “but we are very busy and learning more about the Seybold every day. The Microcut feature is a very nice thing to have.”