See below our guide to buying paper folding machines.  This has been put together to help make sure you purchase the correct letter folder for your application.  But should you need any advise as to your application please call us on 0800 0432 758 or 01895 448984, we are paper folding machine specialists and are happy to assist.

Paper size
This tends to be an easy decision, if you only fold A4 paper then every paper folding machine is suitable on that basis.  If you need a model that can handle A3 paper, then we have a dedicated section to A3 capable machines only .  Any A3 paper folding machine will be able to fold A4 paper in a variety of ways.

Productivity
This is effected by the paper folding machines, speed, feed tray capacity and if the letter folding machine has a conveyor.  A larger feeder and conveyor are just as important as the paper folding machines speed as these allow for longer un-interrupted production.  Note the "Designed for" category on our adverts, this will be a quick guide as to wrether the letter folder in question is suitable for you.

Volumes
Make sure you choose a paper folding machine that is suitable for the amount of work you are doing.  Our adverts state a "designed for / recommended usage" make sure you keep these in mind.  The most common difficulty paper folding machine customers have is they have purchased a machine that is to small for their requirements.

Paper thickness / coating
Make sure you select a mailing machine that is capable of handling the weight of paper that you are using.  Paper weights quoted are based on non coated paper, if you are using glossy or coated paper firstly make sure you select a paper folder with speed control.  Also reduce the advertised thickness by 30gsm for a light coating or 50gsm for a heavy coating.  If it doubt contact us, we are more than happy to do a test runs for you.

Number of feed tyres (not applicable to  high end, air feed paper folding machines)
Like on a printer, but worse as it has already been processed. 
As paper is pulled into the machine, it both offers resistance to being pulled and tries to twist (screw).  The more (and wider) the feeder tyres that initially pull the paper into the machine the better.  This helps the initial pickup of the paper as well as stopping the paper twisting, which can cause a variety of problems.

Fold types
Make sure you choose a paper folding machine that will be able to do the type of fold you require.  Our adverts show a clear picture of the fold type that particular model can do, making this one of the easiest choices when buying your letter folding machine.

Sheets per hour / per minute
Maximum speed at which the letter folding machine will run paper through.  This figure is based on the paper folding machine industry standard of 70gsm paper folded into 3 for a DL size envelope.  These figure do not take into account for "down time" reloaded the paper feeder.

Feed tray capacity hopper
How many sheets of flat 70gsm paper the paper folding machine will hold in its paper feed tray also know as a hopper.

Automatic
This means the paper folding machine pulls paper from the feed tray one after the other "automaticly".   All but the smallest hand fed paper folders feed automaticly.

Multiple sheets hand feed only
Also known as a manual bypass, some paper folding machines allow the operator to insert Stapled and non-stapled sets of paper into the folding machines, paper feeder by hand.  Please note on the smallest folding machine capable of this is the Martin Yale 7200.  But the manual bypass on this letter folder does not have side guide which can create regular "skewing" of the paper.  If a quality manual bypass facility is important to your application we recomend looking at the martin Yale 1611 upwards.