Sheriff’s In-plant Upgrades, Downsizes Paper Cutter

Multimedia Services Manager Dagnu Bezu (far right) and team members at the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office stand with the new SABER X-15 paper cutter.

As manager of Multimedia Services for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office in Dublin, Calif., for the past 11 years, Dagnu Bezu has watched his in-plant’s workload increase dramatically as the county has grown in population. Today the county holds more than 1.6 million people occupying 739 square miles on the East side of San Francisco Bay.

To serve their needs, the six-employee in-plant stays very busy printing tri-fold handouts, booklets, collated books for the Sheriff’s Recruit Academy, court exhibits, signage, posters, and more. It even offers design services, photography and videography.

With all this volume, the in-plant’s 23-year-old SABER paper cutter had become worn out and was ready for replacement.

“Our old paper cutter had a computer problem. After sharing the repair costs with my bosses, we decided to buy a new machine,” says Bezu.

After consulting Steve Wilson, president of K. Wilson & Co., a local family-owned dealership, Bezu decided to downsize from a 45˝ paper cutter to a 37˝ SABER X-15, from Colter & Peterson. Which is equipped with the latest Microcut electronics for faster productivity.

“The original SABER hasn’t been there as long as Dagnu, but we sold it new to the county when the shop was at a different location. It’s been 23 years since we installed it in 1996,” recalls Wilson. Bezu has worked for the county for more than three decades.

That decision to move to a smaller cutter was based on the type of work the in-plant now produces. Bezu’s six employees run one shift five days a week, and the SABER handles a boatload of work. All told, it will cut approximately 2.2 million impressions annually.

“We print everything on 12x18˝ parent sheets, then cut everything down from there,” says Bezu. He sometimes uses the SABER to cut printed signs, small banners, and different materials that require a sharp cut. That includes printed work on 23x35˝ craft paper sheets once a month.

“We do a ton of 3x5˝ cards, such as leave requests and overtime pay cards,” Bezu continues. “We also print and cut 3x8˝ arrest and jail forms and medical requests. In addition to the sheriff’s office, we also print all the business cards for the probation office and do form printing for Human Resources and General Services.”

Installed last June, the SABER handles work printed on a Ricoh Pro C7110S digital color press and a Ricoh Pro 8120s black-and-white unit; the latter will soon be replaced by a new Xerox digital press. Bezu notes the black-and-white to color work ratio is about 85-15.

The in-plant’s wide-format work is run through either an HP Designjet Z6100, an HP Designjet Z6800, or a Roland SOLJET Pro 4 XR-640. Printing for a government agency means achieving specific requirements, and a double bevel feature on the SABER is giving the shop very precise, 1/64˝ cutting accuracy.

“Accuracy is very important to us. I am very satisfied with the new machine’s performance,” remarks Bezu, noting how it keeps sheets tight and even so there are no registration problems. “I like everything about Microcut, and the operators love it. The job recall is much faster, and it’s saving them time to turn jobs. The touchscreen is also larger [12˝ wide] than our previous machine. The displays are more user friendly and very clear to read.”

Bezu acknowledges that updating equipment after using the same machine for 23 years has additional advantages.

“Since the new SABER is only 37˝, we are saving some floor space,” he observes. “But two things you notice right away is it’s safer and makes less noise. It’s very quiet and if it wasn’t for the air compressor, you wouldn’t know that it was even running.”