Martin Yale BCS212 Tabletop 12up Business Card Slitter Review

Author: Jeff McRitchie. http://www.mybinding.com.


The Martin Yale BCS212 is a tabletop business card slitting machine that is designed to slit business cards that are printed twelve up on the page.
*It uses a two part process. First it slits your letter sized sheet into three strips that are 3.5" x 8.5" and then you feed those strips back through the machine to cut them into perfect 2" x 3.5" business cards.
*The BCS 212 allows you to get 20% more cards out of every printed letter sized sheets as compared a similar 10up business card slitting machine.
Strengths / Features:
*The BCS212 is capable of creating 375 cards per minute which translates to more than twenty two thousand business cards per hour. This means that you can potentially cut a run of five hundred business cards in less than two minutes and a run of one thousand business cards in less than four minutes.
*That type of productivity is excellent for on demand applications.
The blades used by the BCS212 are semi-self sharpening. When used normally, the blades on the BCS-212 are designed to be used for years without the need for replacement. However, over time if you do damage or wear out the blades on this machine it is possible to replace them.
*The BCS212 can accept a stack of documents that is up to 5/8" thick. This means that you can place a stack of sheets into the machine and let it do its work. If you are using letter sized sheets it takes a two step process to cut each card. However, the BCS-212 is also designed to cut cards that are printed four up on a 3-1/2" x 8-1/2" strip in a one step process for added productivity.
Weaknesses / Limitations:
*The BCS212 does have adjustable paper guides that will allow you to adjust the feeding of your sheets slightly for variances in your printing. However, it is really only designed to cut twelve up business cards. This means that it cannot be customized to cut special card sizes or be adjusted for gutter cutting.
*Unlike some of the larger business-card slitters that are available on the market, the BCS-212 does not have the ability to perforate or score documents. If you need these features you will want to look at the Intimus BCS-412 which is a twelve up business card slitter with the ability to score and perforate cards.
*In testing the BCS-212 I found that it did an excellent job with heavy stocks and with coated stocks (at least the ones I tried). However, it was a little bit tricky to get it to work with laminated papers. I was able to get it to work with a little bit of trying but it probably isn't ideal for paper that has been laminated before cutting.
Recommendation:
*The BCS-212 is an excellent choice for small copy shops, human resource departments and small printers who want to produce short run business cards without waiting days or weeks for an outside organization to do the job.
*It is great for companies who need to create between a few hundred and a few thousand business cards per day and have a high quality color copier or digital color printer.
*The BCS-212 will make producing business cards both fast and easy.However, it is probably not the best fit for a large print house or production facility that is dedicated to printing tens of thousands of business cards per day.