Five Lakes Press streamlines printing process with Tecnau

In today’s marketplace, it is key that companies constantly innovate in order to stand out from the competition. Five Lakes Press follows this trend. 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, which was founded just six years back, has a deep-rooted history in the printing industry. Color House Graphics and JPL Design Solutions are sister companies. JPL is a company with years of expertise in book cover design, internal book layout, formatting, print collateral, etc. 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 other types marketing and educational material. It is proud of its innovative approach, and offers an easy-to use online portal for its customers to place orders at any time. Five Lakes Press installed two SheetFeeder VP 6000 Tecnau systems to help it achieve its goals.

The company’s biggest jobs are books, religious and children’s ones in particular. Five Lakes was looking for a cost-effective solution that could be implemented quickly. 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 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 runs all sizes of paper the printer is capable as well as weights as low as 27# text (39gsm).

The roll feed automation can save operators up to 2 to 3 hours per shift on unboxing and unwrapping cut sheet papers, staging them, and then loading them. This is compared to the typical 5 minutes per shift for manual unboxing. The Tecnau SheetFeeder VP 6000 is a high-performance, reliable machine that delivers 60,000 sheets of paper per roll. “Our staff doesn’t have to fill up drawers any longer. Let the roll run. We set up several jobs at once. 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 SheetFeeder VP 6000 cuts sheets to the final size, allowing for big savings in odd-sized papers and even greater savings with lightweight and nonstandard paper. “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 can be used with any Canon varioPRINT 6000 TITAN digital printer. 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 gave us a lot of confidence in Tecnau, because they always strive to improve their equipment for the end users. 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’ve had no problems at all thanks to Applied Innovation. Overall, our experience has been very successful.”

For more information, please visit www.tecnau.com.