Do you remember those old dot matrix printers that were so loud you almost had to wear earplugs? They used a ribbon, like a typewriter, that cycled while printing. One of the most annoying things was the paper they used. It has what I liked to call “tractor-feed” holes along the edges. I don’t know if that was the correct term for the paper, but that’s what I called it. I think it is called computer form paper.

I remember trying to load that paper into the printer, trying to get both sides to line up. If you didn’t get the sides lined up, the paper would be gobbled up and you had a serious jam on your hands. If you were lucky enough to get the paper loaded correctly you would print out your job, again waiting for a few minutes as the screeching print head did its thing. You then had to tear the sheet of from the printer. After that you would tear the sides off. The final product looked like a normal sheet of paper.

Weren’t you glad when printers were created that took cut sheet (individual sheets) paper? You simply opened up the package of paper and plopped it in the printer. We would never go back to the old computer paper would we? Believe it or not, people still use that tractor-feed paper. A lot of people still use that paper. Banks, schools and other businesses use this paper every day. Many businesses print their checks on this style of paper. The paper is inexpensive and the printers are cheap. But what about all the tearing and ripping apart?

Machines have actually been created to tear this paper apart for you. They are called bursters. You put your paper into the machine and it pulls the papers apart. It also cuts the side tractor-feed off the paper. The end result is a single sheet of usable, readable and functional paper. Bursters do this quickly and handle a wide variety of paper sizes and thicknessess. Feel free to go take a look and see what one of these machines look like here: Forms Bursters.

If you need any additional information on bursters, take a look at our site, http://www.abcoffice.com, or call one of our sales associates, (800) 658-8788.

We had an interesting call the other day from a customer that was trying to arrange papers into some kind of sequential format. They would get together in a group and peel one sheet of paper of the top of a stack, put it in order and staple it. During some larger projects, this would go on deep into the night. This is also commonly called a “collating party”. I remember doing this when I was in grade school for tests. I believe I even remember collating stacks of paper in college.

Before working for ABC Office, I had no idea the technology even existed, but there are machines (collators) specifically designed to do this for you. It does the same thing in a fraction of the time. Collators are easy to setup and use. They may seem a little pricey up front, but the amount of time out save is well worth it. Not only do you save time, but you don’t have to pay people to collate papers. I like to think of it as an investment.

Some collators can take up to 20 stacks of paper, collate them and staple them in the corner. Many collators can also be interfaced with a bookletmaker, allowing you to create booklets on the fly. Doing this stuff in-house can save you a lot of cash, especially when you look at how much it costs to do this stuff at a copy center. I personally use a collator and paper folder right here sales floor for making flyers and brochures.

If you need any additional info on collators, take a look at our site http://www.abcoffice.com , or call one of
our sales associates, (800) 658-8788.