How'd They Do That?
Projects with many panels, folds at unusual angles, diagonal folds, unusual die cut shapes, and no obvious side guides are sometimes possible and sometimes not. You can count on our expertise for accurate layout advice. These projects offer opportunities to differentiate from the competition. By leaning on our experience, printers can win more business simply by solving their customers design challenges.

Specialty folding companies should offer trouble shooting and design advice. We even go as far as having machinists and engineers on staff that design and customize bindery equipment for us. If your trade partner has a creative eye and plenty of real world experience, "how'd they do that" type folding projects are both possible and profitable.

What is Specialty Folding?
Specialty folding encompasses more than automatically producing "tricky" folds. Should the ability to reduce or eliminate wrinkling qualify as specialty folding? What about holding brittle paper together as it travels though fold rollers and designing fold sequences that travel through machinery with the least amount of stress? Yes, these are examples of specialty folding.

Sometimes specialty folding is simply the ability to work with thick, thin or unusual paper stock. Specialty folding experts need to know what pieces of equipment are suitable for which jobs. For example, buckle folders don't do well with stock 12-points or thicker, but plow and knife folders do. Knowing which resource to use prevents a lot of potential snags from becoming full-blown production problems. Some types of unusual miniature and oversized designs qualify. So does the inline application of glue, regardless of whether it's ez-release, permanent or removable.

Should a company's ability to accept and manufacture extremely large jobs qualify as specialty folding? Yes, as long as the work isn't of commodity status. Companies that claim to be specialty producers should possess redundant (multiple) machines and the expertise to be able to produce large jobs faster than the competition.