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Paper can be pretty annoying. It’s pricey, for one, accounting for a lion’s share of total costs. It is a space hog; between the real estate it consumes and the cost, many would prefer to have the least amount necessary in inventory. Web rolls are bulky and awkward...ever get your foot pinched by one? People have even been killed by runaway webs.
Perhaps worst of all, paper gets wasted. Even with the shortest makereadies, stock will end up in the Gaylords. And then there’s trim—dirty, clingy and messy, needing to be disposed of properly. Or in some cases, improperly and inefficiently. Yes, the indignation never ends.
Fortunately, there’s a consolation prize for those who take the initiative and install trim collection and baling systems: about $110 a ton for recycled, baled paper. Depending on your volume, these systems can pay for themselves in a fraction of the time it takes to pay down the heavy hardware.
In a perfect world, every company would have an efficient, money-saving system in place. But getting optimum return for scrap is located pretty far down on the priority list. Perhaps it’s time to bump it up.
“I wish I would have installed a system sooner,” says Mike Vandenburg, vice president of operations for South Bend, IN-based Mossberg & Co. “I really didn’t take the time to research it. You’ve already paid for the paper, so you don’t think of the scrap value of the paper going out the back door.”
Prior to tapping Air Systems Design for its current system, Mossberg & Co. used an evacuation system to handle folder trim scrap. Meanwhile, pressroom waste and paper from the cutters and stitchers were gathered manually and dumped into Gaylords. The company filled up to two and a half semi-trailers per week.
“Because of that, I had limited resources on my dock,” Vandenburg says. “So I had a local company that we’d call, which would then send a truck over (for pickup) within the hour. We were really being serviced for convenience reasons.”
Mossberg’s three blower systems went live roughly two years ago. One removes the scrap from three paper cutters, a second handles four folders, and the third tends to two stitching lines. An accumulator is mounted above the baler and an air filtration system minimizes the dust that’s created. The ROI is less than two and a half years.
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What the Printer Should Know About Ink
What the Printer Should Know About Paper
