“Since our start in the late 1980’s the printing industry has continued to change. Throughout these changing times our mission at Cocalico Print Shoppe has always been to provide brands, companies, and people with a variety of quality printed products. Today, that goal remains true as we continue to advance in technology to better serve our clients. 

Cocalico Print Shoppe

Dave Witmer has witnessed tremendous changes since opening Cocalico Print Shoppe in the late 1980’s. Among them is the rise of digital printing, the decline of offset and the added stress of steadily decreasing turnaround times.

Before he bought a versatile, new Multigraf Touchline CF375 Fully Automated Creaser, Folder from C.P. Bourg, Dave would be concerned when jobs for digital folding came in the door. Now he refers to tight turnaround times as opportunities to watch the new equipment make short work of what used to be a long and often difficult process.

The Cocalico Print Shoppe began in 1988 on East Church Street in Reamstown Pennsylvania, a small town in northern Lancaster County. Dave started the print shop running general commercial work and document printing for his family’s motor service business. He grew the shop into a full-service print shop now specializing in digital book production and long run litho calendars for the surrounding businesses. During the early years, a typical job that came in on a Monday was ready on Friday, says Kyle Witmer second generation printer and graphic designer. Now Cocalico turnaround times have neared 48 hours except longer press work that can still require up to 10 days for prepress, printing, and finishing before they can be shipped but some rush jobs are turned around in a day.

Today, the shop provides printing and document finishing services to several non-profit organizations, school districts, county and township offices. It also does work for national church organizations and commercial businesses, in addition to some work for other printers. Production runs the gamut, from business cards and forms to saddle-stitched program books and marketing literature as well as oversized calendars and lots of wide-format work.

Taking the trouble out of digital folding

One constant Cocalico Print Shoppe has relied on through the years – aside from their intensely loyal customer base – is shrinking turnaround time. “In today's digital environment, customers want big jobs in a couple of days, small jobs the same day, and rush jobs often within hours,” says Dave.

To get the jobs done, Cocalico relies on an assortment of print engines including an automated Ryobi 700 series press with in-line coater and a two-color offset that are used for longer-run jobs. Several Xerox® color and monochrome engines are used for digital production. A C.P. Bourg Perfect Binder, Collator and booklet making system compliments the bindery along with a Baum folder and a Challenge trimmer / cutter to provide basic finishing.

The shop also does mailings and fulfillment in house, and they specialize in wide-format production, so a host of additional equipment is on hand to handle specialty jobs. “Our hands are in a little bit of everything, so our customers can come here for almost anything” says Dave. However, some jobs coming in were becoming too hands-on, like when the job called for folding digital documents for mailers or booklets. This meant setting up several pieces of equipment in-house or borrowing time on a friendly competitor’s machine to crease and fold the digital products. All this juggling was becoming way too tedious for small or even medium run length jobs. It was more stressful for digitally produced jobs that needed to be finished the next day and sometimes within hours.

After careful consideration and hours of research, Dave decided the Multigraf Touchline CF375 would be the perfect addition to eliminate the stress and headaches that were becoming a daily issue. Dave contacted C.P. Bourg in New Bedford MA for more information and a proposal on the new Touchline.

Putting the new CF375 to Work

After weighing the benefits of the Multigraf over competitor's offerings, Dave gave the Touchline the thumbs up in October 2021. Now, having had the CF375 for several months, he calls the finishing solution a “great success at reducing waste and increasing productivity.” The Multigraf Touchline has the first high pile feeder using a suction system, blower blade for perfect sheet separation; double sheet detection and very simple start-up. “Since there is no compressor needed, the machine is amazingly quiet and is currently in our office” Says Dave “you can hardly hear it running in comparison to competitive models I looked at”.

“The ability of the CF375 to crease and fold up to 400 gsm stock combined with its extremely accurate creasing that eliminates toner and paper cracking has been a fantastic advantage for turning around quick jobs” says Kyle. “The unit is so fast because the paper passes straight through without stopping during the creasing process like other creaser folders on the market today. Plus the crease depth adjustment being fully automated is another fantastic feature of the TOUCHLINE CF375”.

The TOUCHLINE CF375 folding device is equipped with a patented Multigraf Pro-Knife system. It not only achieves a perfect fold but avoids marks on the sheets. Using this technology, the TOUCHLINE CF375 runs at an appreciable speed of 6000 A5 sheets per hour, regardless of the number of folds and creases. Output from the finisher is ejected on one of two levels. If the documents are creased and folded, they exit on the top electric transport conveyor belt. If the sheets are only creased or perforated, they come out into from the bottom stacker. An optional linear perforation device is available for the CF375 and has been deployed on several jobs at Cocalico.

Exceeding Expectations

“We just love the Multigraf Touchline CF375, We've run offset and digital, coated and non-coated stocks without a problem, and it has really exceeded our expectations,” says Dave, adding “we picked up the new CF375 in New Bedford on a family trip to the Cape. We installed it ourselves to complete a quick turnaround job and the CF375 came out of the box ready to work, without an issue, let’s just say that’s a testament to how well engineered the Touchline solution is and just how simple the CF375 is to operate”.

With the addition of the Multigraf Touchline CF375, the quality of products produced at Cocalico Print Shoppe is better than ever and jobs are produced faster – with much less stress.