Feed a wider variety of products with VACUUM TUBE TECHNOLOGY FEEDERS

SPEED:
Variable, up to 200 cycles/min.

PRODUCT PHYSICAL SIZE:
Min: 10" wide at fold x 10" long
Max: 14" wide at fold x 12" long

PAGE COUNT:
Min: 8 pages broadsheet
Max: Up to 500 pages combination broadsheet and tabloid

ELECTRICAL DETECTION:
Low level, misfeed and jam
closed loop circuit

ELECTRICAL:
220 VAC variable speed drive

The New Stepper Big Stuff ™ feeder further extends its ability to feed a wider variety of products

Designed to be used in both offline and inline feeding applications such as address labeling, ink jetting, collating and inserting. The new Big Stuff feeder also handles pre-inserted advance sections, completes and the TMC’s that current vacuum feeders can’t feed reliably. The new vacuum tube technology can also be retro-fitted onto exisiting Stepper Sunday inserting systems to further improve thier capabilities.

Big Stuff’s New Hopper Technology to Automate Post-press Packaging.

Like all Big Stuff Feeders, this unit shifts tedious, time-consuming hand labor to a machine. With the patented Big Stuff hopper, you get a reliable feeding engine for your collators, folders, inserters, labelers, and just about any other post-press equipment you might use. Use this mobile Big Stuff Feeder in just about any configuration that meets your need for speed and reliability in post-process packaging.

How does Big Stuff feed all this stuff?

With amazing speed, reliability and flexibility.

Stepper’s Big Stuff technology is grounded in more than 40 years of research and development. You benefit from real-world applications in newspaper packaging to address the problem. Big Stuff technology has a patented solution that creates flexibility on the fly:

1. Patented Ridging Effect Feed Mechanism locks inserts in their jackets.

2. Advanced Newspaper Separator relieves friction and stack weight for independent movement of bottom section.

3. Floating rollers adjust for thickness variations created by off-center inserts or other shifting.

Separator Eliminates Rolling, Tearing & Bunching

Big Stuff Feeders use Stepper’s patented Advanced Newspaper Separator to break the surface tension at the bottom of the stack. This frees the bottom section to move forward on to the conveyor independently. You won’t see any rolling, tearing or bunching of sections and inserts under the weight and friction of the papers in the stack.

When you reduce the friction, you can stack more papers in the hopper or stack heavier sections with less waste and greater productivity.

Floating Rollers, Even Feeding, Greater Flexibility

Big Stuff’s floating roller mechanism adjusts automatically to the thickness of the newspaper, and you gain flexibility in your operation.

As the feeder roller clamps down, it adjusts at each end to the shape of the paper. This gives Big Stuff flexibility to feed sections whose inserts are off-center or un-even. (Conventional feeders often jam with uneven sections that spin when pulled.)

All Together…

Big Stuff’s innovative design elements treats each section in a stack as an
independent unit with all the benefits of automation. You also get:

• Easy setup • Reliable operation • Faster packaging • Automatic adjustments • Flexibility • Consistent flow • Increased efficiency and productivity

Increase Post-Press Productivity & Reliability

This brand new Big Stuff Feeder was built for insert-stuffed newspaper sections. This Feeder provides a practical way to automatically collate the final newspaper package at cycle speeds of up to 12,000 papers per hour.

“Ridging” Locks Inserts in Place

You can’t do away with revenue-producing inserts, so Stepper did away with the conventional vacuum hoppers.

When you place a stack of newspaper sections in a Big Stuff hopper, Stepper’s patented Ridging Effect Feed Mechanism shapes the bottom section with a narrow ridge. The effect is a rigid package that locks loose inserts – even slicks – in their jacket section while the section is fed and conveyed.

Request a Brochure from Stepper

Big Stuff is made up of four components: collator/tyer, bagger, sealer and conveyor. All are pluggable. This feature makes it possible to produce a variety of packages, from a simple stack to the ultimate bagged and sealed product, all from the same machine.

Only the collator/tyer runs continuously while the other three components run on demand only. No paper, no run.

COLLATOR/TYER starts at the upper left corner of the photograph with four loading stations. (NOTE - The actual number of loading stations for your machine will depend upon your requirements.) Sections are stacked on a moving belt, tied flat and ready for the bagger.

BAGGER inserts the tied individual stacks into individuals bags. Bags are on wickets, replaceable without stopping the machine. Two or three papers will be missed while bags are being replenished so BIG STUFF shunts them aside where they can be picked up and dropped back into the bagging line.

SEALER accepts bagged papers. Open edges of bag slide through a heat slot, come out sealed securely.

INDEXING CONVEYOR, the last stop, shingles papers so it's easy to gather them up. Because the conveyor runs only when a paper hits it, skips from back along the line won't leave a gap on the conveyor to interfere with shingling.

Four feed station packaging system in folded or flat form, either tied or plastic bagged and sealed.

This is a machine that you will use every day of the week to produce a variety of packages without changing the basic configuration. Because the individual components operate independently of each other you can turn off uneeded functions (bagging, for instance). BIG STUFF will then bypass those functions while performing the functions you require. Six different modes are available, they are as follows:

Mode "A" - Collated, flat, tied advance Sunday section for delivery to carriers in advance of the main section or with the main section for a complete paper.

Mode "C" - Securely bagged and sealed Sunday type edition with valuable coupons locked inside against thieves and weather. This is the ultimate BIG STUFF package. A "must" for street sales, an option to consider seriously for carrier delivery.

Mode "E" - Collated, single folded advance Sunday sections bagged but not sealed. Carrier adds main as in "B" above.