Top 10 Letter folding machines 2024

Get Free Price Quotes On Letter folding machines

1. No obligation multiple quotes so you can save big.
2. Free buyer’s guide so you can make an informed decision.

Buying Guide for Letter Folding Machines

Introduction

If you have ever had to hand-fold hundreds or thousands of letters for a snail mail campaign, you already have a good idea of the value of a letter folding machine. These machines automate what can quickly become an excruciatingly mind-numbing task that takes hours or days of time to complete.

Once you bring in a letter folding machine, you free up valuable staff time (time you are paying for!) to do tasks to move your business forward. Some types of machines also have an insert feature that literally puts the folded letter into the envelope, which can save even more time (and save you more money by using your staff for other tasks).

Here is an example of how much you can expect to save:

• Let's say you need to send out 5,000 pieces of mail each month.
• You could pay a lower level staff member $10 an hour to do this for you - costing you around $140 (14 hours of folding and stuffing).
• Or you could buy a letter folding machine for a one-time cost of $1,500. The machine will complete the task in 2 hours.
• In less than a year's time, you will have paid off the cost of the machine AND made money by assigning that employee other tasks to help build your business.

Letter Folding Machines Considerations

Perhaps the most critical component of choosing the right letter folding machine for your company's needs is what is called the duty cycle. This is how many iteration the machine can perform at a time without being overworked. The golden rule for useful life is to stay within 75 percent of the duty cycle per job.

Here is an example:

• You need to mail out 100,000 envelopes with folded materials per month.
• So you want to buy a machine with a duty cycle of 125,000.
• As well, you wouldn't want to have the machine fold all 100,000 back-to-back - this could reduce the useful life considerably. Here, you want to aim for no more than 40 percent of the duty cycle per job.

You should also factor in whether the letter folding machine uses manual or automatic setup. In general, manual setting machines will be cheaper for you in terms of sticker price, but will require more employee time to set up before each job and may limit your options for folding documents.

Automatic machines will be pricier but will give you more fold options with a lower margin of error (due to employee error during setup).

Here are some other considerations to factor in before making a purchase decision:

• Hopper capacity. Can you fit 20 or 200 documents into the folder hopper at a time?
• Staple accommodation. Can it fold stapled papers and if so, how many at a time?
• Volume. Is the machine loud or quiet? This will matter more if you plan to place it in a public area (a machine with a sound deadener can take care of this issue).
• Conveyor feature. Does the machine have a conveyer belt to collect folded documents at the other end?
• Batch counter. Can you track the number of folds per job easily?
• Memory/pre-programming. Can you pre-program for future jobs and store it in memory?

Types of Letter Folding Machines

In general, even the most complex of letter folding machines is still surprisingly simple to use and program. But there are some additional things to keep in mind as you evaluate your options:

Paper type. How well does the machine accommodate different sizes, weights and textures of paper? You will (of course) pay more for more functionality here.

Friction versus air feeders. Friction types use rubber rollers to feed the paper into the folder. Air types use pressurized air in a vacuum suck to feed the paper into the folder. The latter will be pricier but more durable and better for high volume jobs and thicker weight or very smooth glossy finish papers.

Folders/inserters. With a folder/inserter machine, you fully automate the task of assembling your by-mail campaigns. You can buy two different machines or one all-inclusive machine to do this task. Some machines will also do specialized folding/sealing tasks other than using the standard business envelope.

Choosing a Seller of Letter Folding Machines

You can shop for letter folding machines in one of three ways.

Retailer. Big box retail superstores will have a selection of letter folding machines and often folder/inserters as well. However, most of these machines won't be able to withstand heavy duty use. As well, you may find salespeople don't have specialized knowledge of the machines.

Manufacturer. Here you will get the benefit of expert knowledge, but you may find yourself very limited by the brands you can choose from.

Seller. Working directly with a seller is often the best bet if you need your machine to do a large volume of work regularly. You will get expert knowledge, a variety of brands to choose from, customer service and support, and often the option for maintenance and repair contract as well. You may even get training on site.

Pricing for Letter Folding Machines

Of course, your budget will likely dictate where you can start with your letter folding machine purchase. Here is what you can expect to spend for various types of machines:

• Low-volume machine: $200-$300.
• Mid-volume machine (3,000 folds/hour; 20,000 folds/month): $800-$1,500.
• High-volume machine (10,000 folds/hour; 125,000 folds/month): $1,800-$2,500.
• Automatic machine: $2,000-$4,000.
• Air-feed machine: $4,000-$10,000.
• Production-quality machine: $10,000-$15,000.
• Folder/inserter machine: $4,000+.