Three Z Printing Calls on Colter & Peterson to Stay in the Forefront

Since starting with just seven employees in 1978, Three Z Printing has become a publishing juggernaut in southern Illinois.

“Times change and so have we. Years ago, we didn’t do many jobs with coated stock but now it’s part of what we do on a daily basis,” remarks Jim Wakefield, a Three Z Printing stalwart for 34 of its 36 years, in charge of maintenance for the shipping and cutting departments. “With our extensive run lengths, it was time to replace the old equipment and upgrade with a system that can keep up with demand.”

Recently, the company teamed up with Colter & Peterson (Booth 3617)—one of the largest independent distributors of paper cutters and paper handling equipment—to install a reconditioned Schneider Engineering AG high performance unloading system.

Three Z is named for the three Zerrusen brothers—Daniel, William, and Kurt. From its humble beginnings within a 10,000 square-foot building, it now has 450,000 square-feet of workspace, or what Wakefield refers to as “10-plus acres under one roof” in downstate Teutopolis, located halfway between Indianapolis and St. Louis.

The company specializes in printing highly visible 7- and 9-point reply cards, direct mail, free-standing inserts (FSIs), buckslips, as well as additional products for major magazine publishers, newspapers, catalog companies, and other Fortune 500 companies. While some of its work is distributed internationally, the majority is seen either within the U.S., in a magazine or Sunday newspaper, especially the FSIs.

Past experience with C&P led to the replacement of an older stacker.

“We’ve had previous experience with C&P for other equipment and parts,” explains Wakfefield. “They are a good company and when they say they will do something, they deliver on what they promise. Bruce Peterson (President of C&P) has helped me with advice and troubleshooting, and this unloader has resolved our issues.”

Three Z’s older equipment wasn’t durable enough for its current crop of applications. Now more work is put through, with greater speed and reliability.

“The Schneider Engineering unloader is no comparison,” says Wakefield. “It has a table that can handle three or four times the weight of paper we’re unloading at one time. When we stack our 3-1/2x5-inch insert cards, you can encounter a big issue if your table goes too fast. Our new piece of equipment allows us to move at any speed we want because the cards are already contained, and we cut up to 6-inch stacks with the higher lift unit. The paper we use is for 22x38x6-inch lifts. It’s heavy because we are printing on coated stock with glossy artwork for about 65% of our work. The older equipment couldn’t handle that kind of weight.”

The Three Z pressroom is a busy place. Relying on 18 web presses –mostly Heidelbergs and a few Sandens – there is a full cutting department that operates three shifts five days a week, plus most of every Saturday.

“We start at 10 p.m. on Sunday and run until 7 p.m. on Saturday,” acknowledges Wakefield, who is on call 24 hours a day. “It’s important everything was covered during training because our run lengths are in the hundreds of thousands and some are in the millions. We can’t afford to miss a beat.”