No More Cracked Edges For Church Bulletins

On any given Sunday, nearly 2,000 members attend the Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville, Ala. The church, founded in 1957, counts about 6,000 members total in its congregation. That’s a lot of pamphlets, booklets and weekly bulletins that somebody needs to print and fold. And that job belongs to a staff of two: Publications Coordinator Ron Snyder and Press Operator Jerry Nichols.

Snyder and Nichols run the in-plant on Whitesburg Baptist Church’s campus. Established in 1984, the shop began with an AB Dick 360 in a small office space. In the late ’90s, it moved into a 1,500-sq.-ft. facility and has been expanding its range of offerings ever since.

Recently, the shop made another acquisition, a second Technifold Fast-Fit Tri-Creaser installed on its eight-page, 20/20 Baum folder. The first Tri-Creaser was purchased in 2014, but the pair liked it so much, they added another one.

“We have a trust relationship with our church leaders, and we tried to identify the benefits of the equipment, how it would improve quality, productivity and save us money,” explains Nichols. “We no longer have to outsource a lot of jobs we were outsourcing before.”

Nichols tried to use an old, steel scoring wheel before acquiring the Tri-Creaser, but he could never get it to work right. He loves the split rubber creasers on the new equipment and says they are easy to install.

“If you change the paper stock weight, you can quickly change the different sized creasing ribs because they are split,” he explains. “And the female component on it is free-floating. You don’t lock it down; you just align the creasing rib over the channel that you need, and it centers itself as the machine runs.”

Nichols says the Tri-Creaser lets them do the same work in about half as much time as before.

The church prints a bi-monthly magazine, which is the shop’s largest project. The Tri-Creaser makes the magazine signatures a lot easier to fold, with straighter, smoother folds. Nichols also uses it for the church’s folding brochures and greeting cards.

“A lot of people don’t think a church would have a lot to do, but in addition to the weekly bulletins, we print all the pamphlets and booklets for our church school,” explains Nichols. “We even have a cafeteria on campus and print the menus. We also do posters and banners with our wide-format printer.”

The response to the shop’s new capabilities has been overwhelmingly positive. In the past, booklets using heavy stock would come back with cracked edges, but no more.

“I was amazed with the difference when I ran my first job on it,” Nichols recalls. “Now all we have are smooth edges. Our customers are a lot happier.”