New Cutter, Binder at College of the Ozarks

Craig Cogdill knew it was time for a new cutter. His in-plant’s 20-year-old Challenge 420 CRT had become inaccurate and unreliable, and College of the Ozarks needed a better solution.

In October, that solution arrived when the College Press started up a new Challenge Champion 305TC in its Point Outlook, Missouri, operation. Not only does the 305—which Cogdill describes as a “workhorse”—eliminate the need to take the clamp off while cutting business cards and other small jobs, it doesn’t require as much space as the old cutter. It also produces a cleaner cut and boasts significant technological advancements over the 420 CRT.

Cogdill, manager of the College Press, says that the touch screen and automatic maintenance reminders are some of the most useful aspects of the new cutter.

“It’s just more modern and handy,” he says.

The safety features on the cutter were a big selling point for the in-plant, which employs student workers—and when you’re running an in-plant with 18 students who are new to the printing industry, safety and ease of use are critical.

“There’s a no-cut zone. If anything breaks the field [say, fingers and hands], it won’t cut,” Cogdill explains.

New Perfect Binder Brings New Business

From left: Craig Cogdill, Don Codillo, Samantha Blackwell, Bob Wilson, Lynn Behrends stand with the new Sterling Digibinder from Spiel Associates.

Also new to the college in-plant’s repertoire is a Sterling Digibinder perfect binder from Spiel Associates. The shop had an old binder that could only perfect bind booklets, limiting the amount of jobs that it could take on. The new Digibinder can easily handle the numerous short-run perfect-bound books the in-plant prints.

College Press prints and binds approximately 1,500 cookbooks per year for the college, as well as the college’s yearbook and promotional materials for events, such as materials for this year’s Spring Convocation, which will host quarterback Tim Tebow as the speaker.

Cogdill points out that the Digibinder has brought a significant amount of new work in-house—jobs that were previously outsourced. The in-plant printed thousands of booklets to accompany the NAIA Basketball Championship. The Digibinder has also enabled the shop to create notepads, and Cogdill explains that the new machine melts the glue quickly.

“That’s the biggest advantage, that the notepads dry instantly,” he says. “It’s just a faster, quicker way to turn around jobs.”

Not only has the Digibinder expanded the work that College Press does for the campus, such as coloring books for the bookstore, it has brought in additional work from off-campus. For example, the in-plant is now printing books for a tractor museum.

In the future, Cogdill says that the in-plant plans to add the ability to print four-color envelopes—work that was previously done two-color or outsourced.

“It’s the chink in our armor,” Cogdill says, “so I’ve been shopping around for an inkjet or laser printer.”