Paterson, NJ – Two years ago, Chuck Novotny at Graphic Resources in Woodbury, Minnesota first learned about some capabilities that sets the SABER paper cutter apart from other machines in the industry. But it wasn’t until nearly two months ago when he received an education about the world of paper cutting. That’s when Novotny purchased a second 46” SABER paper cutter, this time from Colter & Peterson, North America’s largest independent distributor and foremost authority on paper cutters and paper handling equipment.

“We bought the first SABER used, from a dealer. But it wasn’t until we installed the Colter & Peterson www.papercutters.com paper cutter in the first week in August where we truly began to understand everything these machines could do,” remarked Novotny, the company’s owner and president who has been involved with the business for 20 years. Graphic Resources opened in Woodbury, an eastern suburb of St. Paul, in 1987.

“The reason why we decided to buy a second SABER was after Heidelberg told us they no longer would support our 31-year-old POLAR paper cutter, due to parts not being available. I did some research, found C&P online, and had a discussion with Bruce Peterson and told him what we were looking for. We agreed on a rebuilt SABER with an all-new electronics package. It is way faster than the POLAR and has made us much more productive.” 

It couldn’t have happened at a better time. Graphic Resources has evolved into an all-types printer, combining single and full color offset work with short run digital color printing and high-speed black and white variable data jobs. Novotny said 75% of their business comes from local businesses in the Twin Cities area, and activity now is greater than normal with all the political work they will be handling until the November elections.

“The two SABERS cut stock for all our presses,” informed Novotny, who employs both 4-color and 2-color Shinohara and Ryobi presses for his offset work and Ricoh and Konica Minolta presses on the digital side. “We do a lot of direct mail, postcards and booklet work, so we print multiple-up and then cut. We also handle newsletters and business cards for others including non-profit organizations. With all the different sizes, we print on flat sheets and the cutters do the rest, usually trimming between 2,000 to 10,000 sheets per run.”

The new electronics package C&P provided is the Microcut® H3 Drive paper cutting automation system. The automated retrofit system improves productivity, memorizing cutting sequences and guiding the back gauge into position each time to make highly accurate cuts within 1/64 of an inch. Novotny says the newer technology not only has made a huge difference, but it has allowed his cutting machine operators to gain some valuable lessons.

“Since our operators were already familiar with our first SABER paper cutter, I thought we knew what we were getting until the second machine arrived. The guys from the Des Moines office drove up and showed us all the tricks and how to get more out of the machine than we did previously. There were a few programming features we didn’t know about with our first SABER. The guys also replaced and adjusted some things on the first paper cutter. They didn’t have to do it, but doing so has contributed to making us much more efficient.”

Novotny says his customers and others have noticed the difference.

“These cutters are newer and more modern than what we had previously,” summed up Novotny. “Every other week, we will have customers or prospective customers come through and mention that we have a really nice shop and good looking machines. It really does make a difference.”