The Martin Yale Intimus
BCS412 desktop business card slitting machine is designed to help you
produce twelve high quality business cards from a single letter sized
sheet of paper. Plus it also provides you with the ability to score or
perforate your printed documents. The scoring and perforating
features of this machine can be used to create event tickets, occasion
cards, tent style business cards and other high quality custom items.
Overview:
The Martin Yale Intimus
BCS412 desktop business card slitting machine is designed to help you
produce twelve high quality business cards from a single letter sized
sheet of paper. Plus it also provides you with the ability to score or
perforate your printed documents.
Cutting business cards
using the BCS412 is usually a two step process. The machine will begin
by cutting your letter sized sheet into three strips that are 3.5" x
8.5". You then take these three strips and feed them back into the
machine and it will cut them into twelve 2" x 3.5" business cards. Or,
if you print your business cards onto 2" x 3.5" stock you can cut the
cards in a single step.
However, the BCS412 is not only
designed for creating business cards. The scoring and perforating
features of this machine can be used to create event tickets, occasion
cards, tent style business cards and other high quality custom items.
Strengths / Features:
The
Martin Yale Intimus BCS412 can produce up to 375 finished business
cards per minute. This allows users to create a run of 500 cards in
less than two minutes and a run of 1000 cards in less than three
minutes.
The blades used on the BCS412 are semi-self
sharpening. Although they will eventually become dull and need
replacement, they are designed for years of maintenance free operation.
This helps to keep the amount of money required to maintain the BCS412
to a minimum
The BCS-412 is designed to cut business cards
that are printed twelve up on a letter sized sheet of paper. This
cutting pattern helps to maximize the productivity of the unit and
yields 20% more business cards per sheet than a standard 10 up business
card slitter for the same amount of money. This increased productivity
helps to reduce paper usage, printing costs and the amount of labor
required to produce your business cards.
In addition to the
business card cutting features of the BCS412 you can also use this
machine as a perforating machine or scorer. This is ideal for printers
and copy shops who are looking for a fast and easy way to create
tent-style cards, event tickets, coupon books and occasion cards.
The
compact design of the BCS412 makes it ideal for locations where space
is at a premium. It can conveniently sit on a counter or can be stored
away when it is not in use.
Weaknesses / Limitations:
The
BCS-412 is designed to cut a letter sized sheet into twelve business
cards. You can make small adjustments to the machine to help ensure
proper alignment when cutting but you can't cut custom sized cards or
move the slitting blades to alternate positions. You also can not use
the BCS412 to cut cards that are printed on any size of paper other
than 8.5" x 11" or 3.5" x 8.5".
The scoring feature on this
machine uses a special scoring wheel that can be moved and adjusted as
needed. This scoring wheel is designed to crease your document to
prepare it for folding. However, if you attempt to use a scoring wheel
on digitally printed output it may result in cracking. If you need to
crease items in areas that are digitally printed you should test a
sample first to see if cracking will occur. If you have problems with
cracking you may end up needing to buy a completely separate
compression scoring device to crease your documents.
The
BCS412 yields the maximum number of possible business cards from every
letter sized sheet. However, the fact that the cards are so close
together on your printed sheets means that it is impossible to use this
machine for creating full bleed business cards.
It is also
important to remember that the BCS-412 is designed primarily for use
with letter size 8.5" x 11" paper. It cannot cut business cards printed
on legal sized sheets and has a maximum throat width of 11" for
perforating or scoring.
Recommendation:
The Intimus BCS412 is an extremely robust machine that is perfect for small printers, in plant print shops and copy shops.
It provides the ability to quickly and easily produce your own on demand business cards.
It even give you the ability to your own custom perforating and scoring.
However,
it is not designed for dealing with large paper sizes, extremely high
volumes or for creating full bleed business cards.
This review was written by Jeff McRitchie who is the director of marketing for Mybinding.com.
Jeff has written more than three hundred articles and more than two
hundred reviews on Binding Machines, Binding Supplies, Report Covers,
3-Ring Binders, Index Tabs, Laminators, Laminating Supplies, Paper
Shredders and Paper Handling Equipment