Tecnau Streamlines Printing Process for Five Lakes Press
In today’s marketplace, it is key that companies constantly innovate in order to stand out from the competition. Five Lakes Press does not fall into this category. Even its tagline, “Print Your Way,” expresses how it listens to its customers to continually improve its printing process and differentiate itself in the industry.
Five Lakes Press has been in business for six years, but it is a well-established company. Color House Graphics, JPL Design Solutions and Five Lakes Press are its sister companies. JPL is a company with years of expertise in book cover design, formatting, print collateral, and internal book design. According to Brad Rusticus, general manager of Five Lakes Press, “Five Lakes Press branched off from Color House Graphics, which brings over 35 years’ experience in offset printing for longer runs.” Five Lakes Press is the digital print company of the group, conveniently located in the mid-west. It is focused on smaller print runs, and faster turnaround times for personalized books and marketing materials. It takes pride in its innovation and even offers a simple-to-use portal to allow its customers order printing projects from anywhere at any time. Five Lakes Press needed to be a leader within the printing industry in order to reach its goals. It installed two SheetFeeder VP 6000 Systems from Tecnau.
The company’s biggest jobs are books, religious and children’s ones in particular. Five Lakes wanted a solution which would allow them to turn around orders quickly, while remaining cost-effective. According to Mr. Rusticus, “Five Lakes Press has been printing the very popular Hometown Hunter series of children’s books geared for 8- to 12-year-olds. To produce these books, we use the Canon varioPRINT TITAN system in conjunction with the Tecnau SheetFeeder VP 6000. Tecnau equipment’s roll to cut sheet capability has been essential for us to print our books quickly. It really has been the biggest benefit for us.”
The Tecnau SheetFeeder VP 6000 system increases the 6270 TITAN’s throughput while lowering downtime, operator involvement, and paper costs. “We conducted a cost analysis and discovered that we experienced a 20 percent savings with rolls. It was a no brainer for us,” declared Brad. The SheetFeeder is capable of feeding every paper size and weight that a printer can handle, including paper as light as 27# text (39gsm).
Roll feed automation allows operators to spend as little as five minutes per day unboxing, unwrapping and staging cut sheet paper, compared to up to two or three hours. The Tecnau SheetFeeder VP 6000 offers maximum productivity and reliability with 60,000 sheets per roller. “Our staff doesn’t have to fill up drawers any longer. Then we simply let the job rolls roll. Our labor costs have been reduced by one third,” said Mr. Rusticus.
SheetFeeder’s VP 6000 also allows you to switch between letter and tabloid sizes without changing the rolls. The final sheet size is cut, which results in huge savings on odd-sized paper and even greater savings on lighter or non-standard papers. “Five Lakes Press lets its rolls run continually, sometimes even 24 hours per day and up to six days per week depending upon the jobs to be completed,” stated Brad.
The SheetFeeder VP 6000 works with all Canon varioPRINT 6000 TITAN Series digital printers. It can also be used with other finishing devices, such as self-mailers and binders.
Five Lakes Press acquired their first Tecnau SheetFeeder VP 6000 System over three year ago. After a year, the company purchased its second system. “With the second system we experienced a noticeable level of innovation. These revisions have given us a great deal of confidence in Tecnau as they strive to continually improve the equipment. They stay on top of cutting-edge technology,” stated Mr. Rusticus.
In closing, Brad declared, “The equipment is very durable, dependable, and well-built. We have experienced very few issues due to the excellent support provided by our vendor, Applied Innovation. Overall, our experience has been very successful.”
Visit www.tecnau.com for more information.