"Since 1959, Delivering Profit through Newspaper Packaging Innovations"


Issue 10

Can Stepper Provide the Automatic Feeder to Start the Stream?

Click the images below to see the Big Stuff® systems and packaging options.


Stepper developed a servo-motor drive for its BIG STUFF Feeders.
This design change made it possible to manufacture feeders as standard components, to be integrated into custom applications & electronically timed to interface with host machines.

Over its 40-plus year history, Stepper, Inc., has produced three completely different systems for producing complete packages. Stepper packaging systems output newspapers in folded or flat form, either tied or bagged; reverse inserted without wrapping or bagging; and in folded or flat form, bagged in plastic and sealed for home delivery, street or retail sales, and labeled mail. Stepper’s proven systems package between 5,000 and 7,500 papers per hour.

Earlier systems used mechanical devices to link operations together. These systems required a lengthy design and manufacturing process for a small company. And because the newspaper product itself began to increase in size and weight, Stepper always seemed to be designing around an ever-growing product. These changes in the physical characteristics of newspapers limited reliability in feeder design – that is, until Stepper came up with its patented BIG STUFF® Newspaper Feeder.

Today, Stepper has converted its BIG STUFF® Feeder drive from mechanical linkages to servo-motor drives. This technology makes it possible to manufacture feeders as standard components to interface with host equipment and integrated within a customized application. They are electronically timed to the host machine, thus reducing the overall system cost considerably. All other terminal functions can be servo-driven, and this allows different units to interface with the BIG STUFF® Feeder.

Upstream feeding of large newspaper sections controls reliability of downstream process. Stepper, Inc. can provide the market with its reliable, durable, servo-driven and patented BIG STUFF® Feeders. What’s more, Stepper has proprietary intelligence information on feeders or hoppers, hopper loaders, onserters, folders, tyers, plastic baggers and labelers. We have developed and been awarded 24 U.S. patents pertaining to some of these units, all of which demonstrate proven performance from tests conducted in production environments throughout the industry.

Stepper has been in this business more than 40 years. We are willingly leaving the post-press equipment and integrated systems to you, the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) who meet the needs of newspapers around the world. Our interest is in supplying only the innovative BIG STUFF® Feeder technology to facilitate reliable feeds of large newspaper sections during the final preparation for delivery. OEMs of post-press equipment (such as collators, inserters, folders, labelers, and baggers) can greatly increase their sales by opening up a new market in newspaper distribution and packaging operations that currently depend on manual labor.

In today’s environment, many newspapers have come to rely on a costly pool of manual laborers to finish the packaging job where machines leave off. With the BIG STUFF® Newspaper Feeder, newspapers and manufacturers have a viable — profitable — new alternative.

Interested in the application of this technology to solve feeding problems with larger newspaper sections? Contact Stepper, Inc., to learn more.

(Read New Business Model.)