Flyer Folding Machines
A Guide to Flyer Folding Machines Costs and Specifications
Flyer folding machines help to save your business time and money. Take a look at your options regarding this equipment and what you can expect to pay.
Can you imagine running a leafleting business where you have to fold each flyer by hand so it could be shoved into an envelope and posted? Think of the number of people you’d have to employ, the hours of manpower it would require! It’s a crazy thought but it was a reality not-so-long-ago.
From leaflets to letters and Amazon parcels, the U.S Postal service handles 484.8 million pieces of mail a day. Luckily for you, most of the letters posted, even by small businesses or charities, are not folded by hand and are in fact done by letter folding machines. These can fold your post perfectly symmetrically as many times as you need.
So which machine is right for your business?
Speed Vs Price
One of the biggest considerations when deciding which letter folding machine to purchase is the speed at which they can fold the letters. If you’re a business — or you’re in the process of setting up a business — that relies heavily on flyers, then speed vs cost will be the biggest choice you make.
The more letters per hour that the machine can process, the more productive your business will be. However, if you’re a small office looking to save man (or woman!) power on a mundane task every few weeks, then speed might not be a priority.
At the top of the game is the Martin Yale Mark VII Airfield paper folder which can process a whopping 35,000 sheets an hour. Setting this bad boy to work for 5 hours will net you 175,000 sheets. That’s more leaflets than the population of Jackson, Mississippi!
For a high-end paper folding machine like this, the sky is the limit in terms of cost. You could find a machine that ticks all the boxes for your business at $2,000 but you could also pay $4,500
On the other end of the spectrum, we have the NeoPost DS-35 which can handle only 1,350 letters per hour.
This means the average club newsletter can be folded up and ready to sent out in around an hour. For an entry-level machine like this, you should probably expect to pay no less than $400, a tidy sum but comparable to the amount you’d spend on a basic desktop computer or laptop.
Flyer Folding Types
Another factor in deciding what machine is right for you is what type of folds you want. This may sound like a small consideration but the right type of fold can make all the difference when it comes to your customers taking your business seriously. If the material in the envelope is folded in a way which makes it difficult for the customer to access, it’s going to aggravate them.
The more expensive machines will offer lots of different folds, creasing that paper in whatever way you can imagine while the lower-end machines will only have a few fold types. Here are some to look out for.
The Z Fold
This is best for leaflets, folding the page into three in a zig-zag and creating a six-page design that is perfect for flyering your local area.
The Parallel Fold
This where the paper is folded in half once and then again making an eight-page brochure. It could include an order form or application on the back panel that can be ripped-off and sent back to you for processing.
The Tri-Fold
This involves folding the page straight into three and is typically the format of direct mail marketing mail marketing. It means you are not cramming too much information onto one panel.
Smart Flyer Folding Machines
Just as smart home technology is becoming ever more present in our lives and ever more efficient, so too are letter or paper folding machines automating more and more of the process of direct mail marketing.
Some of the features to look out for are:
Barcode Reader
This is often an optional feature that may require paying extra for and downloading additional computer programs such as Neopost’s output management software (OMS). But it can prove a worthwhile investment if you are sending out letters or documents multiple pages long.
Provided each individual page has a barcode or a Q-code, the machine can collate the pages in the correct order and fold them together, regardless of what order they are placed into the machine.
Touch Screen
The process of programming a letter folding machine can seem a complex business, especially with so many presets. The easiest way around this is to purchase a machine with a touch screen to make things simple.
The DS-64i from NeoPost has a 7” color screen which displays a labeled picture of the machine and makes setting it up innovative and straight-forward.
Get A Flyer Folding Machine Quote
With so many options, from letter folding volume to touch screens deciding which letter folding machines are right for you and your business can be a massive hassle and can seem overwhelming. However, it doesn’t have to be. We have simplified the process for you.
Our quote service allows you to fill in a form listing all of your needs, even comparing two machines side-by-side. All we require is your zip code and email address and a few details and we will get back to you as soon as we can with prices.
Leave a Reply