New Cutter Boosts Safety, Reliability at Cook County In-plant

By Bob Neubauer

Showing off the new Challenge Champion 305 TC cutter installed in the Cook County Bureau of Administration's Printing and Graphic Services operation are (from left) Peter Gardenier, manager; Janusz Kaczmarczyk, Multilith operator; and Mary Sheeran, bindery and digital printer operator.

Cutting machines can last for decades, but sometimes the need for better safety features and reliability outweigh the lure of saving money by keeping an old cutter going for another year.

In Chicago, The Cook County Bureau of Administration’s Printing and Graphic Services operation did just that in October when it upgraded its older Challenge PB cutter with a new Challenge Champion 305 TC featuring an easy-to-use color touch screen, an enclosed rear table and two-hand timed non-repeat cut buttons. Able to do up to 26 cuts per minute, the new cutter boasts a maximum cutting width of 30.5˝.

“It has improved productivity,” affirms Becky Schlikerman, spokeswoman for Cook County, the second-most populous county in the United States. “Small items, like business cards, can be cut without changing the cutter’s setup. In addition, the cut position indicator helps make sure our projects are done right.”

Those projects include forms, brochures, business cards, stationery, envelopes, memo pads and more, all produced by the 11-employee in-plant, which has an annual operating budget of $1 million.

“This system is reliable, which means our customers get their projects in a timely manner,” Schlikerman says.

As for safety features, the Champion 305 TC uses low-pressure pre-clamping to protect operators from injury. Its light beam curtain also makes the system safer for in-plant staff, Schlikerman notes.

This isn’t the only new piece of bindery equipment the in-plant added in 2017. In April it added a James Burn DocuPunch PLUS automatic punch. Other new equipment includes a Duplo DC-616 PRO slitter/cutter/creaser, a Morgana Digifold Pro folder/creaser and a Morgana BM350-500 bookletmaker with the AF602 dual bin feeder.

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Bob Neubauer Author's page

Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 170 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.