Stepper’s experience has allowed us to work closely with our customers. As we analyzed production problems over the years, we came to an insight that changed the direction of our company. That insight was the recognition that the major bottleneck to all effective automation for packaging large sections and completes was the upstream feeding process. No matter what kind of automated process you have in mind – newspapers or any other manufacturing, you need a reliable stream of product or the downstream operations are doomed to poor performance.

Armed with this insight and knowing how hard it is to feed bulky, insert-packed newspaper sections, we shifted our company focus. Instead of concentrating on low-volume, long lead-time, one-of-a-kind systems, we began to focus all our efforts on designing a modular hopper technology that could do what conventional hoppers cannot: feed the big stuff.

After several years of successful testing, our patented BIG STUFF® Newspaper Feeder is ready to ship as an OEM hopper. Users can build BIG STUFF® precisely into their packaging solutions. Strong on reliability, simplicity and durability, BIG STUFF® provides the upstream reliability needed to support the performance of downstream operations.

BIG STUFF® Feeds the Stuff that Causes
Other Systems to Choke
Conventional hoppers use vacuum or shuttle plate mechanisms. These devices work well for smaller pieces, but their reliability decreases as the weight, bulk and slickness of pre-stuffed sections increases. Because insert advertising is essential to the revenue growth and competitive advantage of today’s newspapers, designs based on vacuum or shuttle plate mechanisms pose a serious limitation to a newspaper’s performance in final assembly.

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 new alternative.

What’s important about this ridge? First, the ridge essentially locks the loose advertising inserts in place inside the newspaper. It also produces a stiffening, column effect with the body of the paper that allows the feed shuttle to push the paper as it ejects the paper. The ridge also forms side slopes in the bottom paper so it angles down and away from the next paper overhead, thus reducing the friction between the two newspapers.

Our patented newspaper separator further improves reliability. The separator allows newspaper sections with either missing inserts or extra inserts to pass on through without mis-feeding or jamming.

After years of prototyping and testing, we landed on a solution that tackled the problem – literally from a new angle. In short, BIG STUFF® evolved to meet a specific purpose: delivering a reliable stream of product for an innovative approach to final newspaper assembly.