The Boom in Mail Fulfillment
The need to process documents is being pushed to the extremes of human capabilities. The mailing fulfillment industry is rushing to implement systems and technology to print and process documents faster and more efficiently to , and to keep up with the demand that manufacturers, retailers and business are asking of them.
Large in-house print shops and mailing centers are processing personalized documents that we come into contact with every day; statements, invoices, checks, brochures, stationery, postcards, invitations and many more. Most mailing centers need to process tens of millions of documents and forms per day just to keep up.
Rolling Up Our Sleeves to Handle Pre-printed Roll Applications
A commonly used method that document centers with print to web systems use for processing forms and documents comes with the use of rolls of paper.
Once the rolls are printed on, they now need to be cut into individual sheets. This is done on a partner supplied forms cutter. After the forms are sheeted, they are then transferred into a Baum20 INF (inline folder) for folding.
These forms/documents can be folded a variety of ways to produce a finished product, such as brochures, mailers or coupons. They are folded for easier insertion into boxes or envelopes, which is the case for statements, invoicing or advertising.
The Baum20 INF in this application can also be equipped with perforating blades for tear away mailers and coupon applications. Gluing is also another added benefit that can be added to the folder for self-mailing.
Let Me Write You a Check … Flat Sheet Applications
When thinking about flat sheet applications, a good example is checks. In a world of “direct deposit,” many would be surprised to know that there are a lot of checks that are still being used.
Rebates, returns and reimbursements are the new driving force in the check print and mail industry. In today’s marketing and sales trends of “cash back” and “rebates,” the check printing business is running in the tens of millions.
Every check that needs to be printed needs to be fed into a printer. A recent application that Baumfolder partnered on was a check printing solution that required printing heads, vacuum conveyors and a perforated folding station for tear away and mailing.
A Baum20 continuous feeder started the process off with feeding shingled blank check stock at a rate of 7,000 per minute onto a partner supplied vacuum conveyor and print system. Once the checks were printed, they were transferred through a Baum20 INF (inline folder) where they were folded in half, perforated and had the edges glued closed for ease of mailing and security.
Once folded, perfed and glued the checks passed through another set of print heads where customer names and addresses were added. Finally, the printed and sealed checks were conveyed out ready for mailing.
Make it Personal With Variable Data Documents
There is a great deal of time, energy, money and equipment for a mailing center to produce millions of forms per day. Considering that some of these documents and forms are for millions of different end-users/ customers and that the information that is identified, printed and processed varies from customer to customer, page to page.
Baumfolder Corporation has developed and manufactures a solution to address the struggles of processing and handling these variable data jobs.
Baumfolder integrates their gathering and folding system with an industry-leading print engine. The customer loads a PDF formatted print file to the printer and once the file is loaded, the printer begins printing and feeding the personalized sheets into the Baum solution.
There, the page(s) can be collected and a bar code reader can verify each sheet to the print file to make sure that the correct sheets are being printed and to track the sheet count for each customer order.
Once a complete set of documents is collected and verified, it is folded together to a predetermined size for mailing purposes and conveyed out for operator removal and/or envelope insertion.
How Baumfolder Can Help With Your Mailing Fulfillment
Baumfolder Corporation is an industry leader in capital equipment and complete solutions for the document handling, graphic arts and mailing fulfillment industry, playing an essential role in many mailing and document handling applications.
As the mailing and order fulfillment market continues to grow, Baumfolder Corporation will continue to develop and innovate new technology. If you have an application that you need help with, give Baumfolder and their highly skilled project team a call at 800.543.6107.
