4 Things to Consider When Choosing a Paper Cutter

There are several things to look at when deciding which paper cutter will work best for you. What types of jobs are you doing? Where are you going to put your new machine? How much is your budget? Who is going to be using your paper cutter?

Paper Cutter Choices

When producing your different jobs, what is the largest piece of paper that will need to be cut? All of the stack cutters Whitaker carries are able to take at least 11 x 17 inch paper. What is the size of the stack of paper that needs to be cut? There are cutting heights available from 5/8” on the Cut-True 13M to 3-3/4” on the Triumph 5560. Are your jobs simple or complex? If you are only making one cut, a manual cutter like the Triumph 4300 might do. If your jobs have a lot of cuts and crop marks, then using an automatic programmable cutter as in the Triumph 5255 is a necessity.

Space Considerations

How much space do you have? Tabletop or floor standing machine? What size is the door to your shop? The Martin Yale 7000E is a small cutter designed to fit on counters for low volume applications. If you are short on counter space, look at the Formax Cut-True 15M comes with a stand. Got plenty of room, the Triumph 7260 is a high-volume commercial cutter that needs its floor space. If you are doing a high volume of work but only have a single door opening, the Triumph 5255 can fit through and give you a fully automatic and programmable cutter.

Did you have a small budget or limited credit for leasing? Martin Yale’s 620RC is a fantastic manual cutter with the ability to cut up to 18” paper and a 3” stack. Have a bigger budget? The Triumph 4850, our most popular paper cutter, can also cut 18” paper and up to a 3” stack. The advantage the 4850 has is that it is a semi-automatic cutter allowing you to cut all day without getting tired. If you run a large in-house printing facility, we have cutters to fit any of your needs.

Programmable Cutters

Are you very experienced with stack cutters or due you have people with lesser experience using the machines? Cutters that are programmable make life easier for the experienced user and can be almost full proof for the newbie. Punch in the job number and the back gauge moves into place for each cut, you just must remember which way to turn the paper. The Triumph cutters have even taken that guess work out with their VRCut software. Run your print job through the VRCut interpose software.

This creates PDFs that are laid out specifically for the VRCut enabled Triumph cutter. The VRCut controller module connects directly to the cutter and controls the automatic back-gauge movement. It also provides step-by-step directions on which way to place the paper, the correct rotation for the next cut, when to discard the scraps and how to process the cut sheets. This allows any operator, no matter the experience, to cut with confidence.

Answer these questions and visit our website to see all our paper cutting options. Or better yet give us a call and talk with one or our experts, we would love to talk to you your projects and needs.