Posted by admin

For years, the Martin
Yale 1217a Autofolder has been one of the most popular heavy duty
tabletop paper folding machines on the market.It is designed
for folding a huge variety of paper sizes including letter-size,
legal-size, 11″ x 17″ and 12″ x 18″ sized paper. These features make the Martin Yale 1217a an
excellent choice for medium to large mailrooms, small print shops and
medium to large sized churches.

Overview:

• For years, the Martin
  Yale 1217a Autofolder has been one of the most popular heavy duty
  tabletop paper folding machines on the market.
• It is designed
  for folding a huge variety of paper sizes including letter-size,
  legal-size, 11″ x 17″ and 12″ x 18″ sized paper. It can even fold many
  heavy duty paper stocks that will jam inside other paper folding
  machines.
• These features make the Martin Yale 1217a an
  excellent choice for medium to large mailrooms, small print shops and
  medium to large sized churches.

Strengths / Features:

• The
  Martin Yale 1217a Autofolder is one of the only paper folders available
  on the market that is capable of handling 12″ x 18″ sized sheets. This
  is important for many print shops and printers since 12″ x 18″ is a
  common digital press sheet size.
• For organizations that are
  looking to fold heavy card stocks and index weight papers the Martin
  Yale 1217a is one of the best options available on the market. It uses
  large heavy duty feed rollers to help handle heavier paper stocks and
  is capable of handling 90lb cover, 135lb index and 165lb offset papers.
  The large feed rollers on this machine also make it better suited for
  handling glossy and coated papers. However, coated sheets and glossy
  stocks should be tested with this machine to ensure that they will run
  smoothly and that marks will not be left on stock from the friction
  rollers.
• The Martin Yale 1217a runs at speeds of up to 10,300
  letter sized sheets per hour. Depending on the fold pattern and sheet
  size that you are using you may not be able to achieve that benchmark.
  However, the 1217a should be fast enough to keep up with most pieces of
  high speed digital printing equipment. This means that you should be
  able to fold your documents at least as fast as you can print them.
• The
  1217a Autofolder can also produce a huge variety of folding patterns
  including a: letter-fold, half-fold, z-fold, double parallel fold,
  right angle fold and baronial fold. Or if you need to fold a custom
  sized sheet of paper you can manually adjust the fold plates to produce
  almost any folding pattern that you can imagine.

Weaknesses / Limitations:

• The
  1217a does not have a manual speed adjustment. If you want the ability
  to adjust the folding speed you need to look at the 2020VS which offers
  a similar feature set to the 1217a but includes a fully variable speed
  control. The ability to adjust the speed makes running glossy and
  coated stocks easier and can also help eliminate paper jamming issues
  and misfeeds.
• In order to feed paper into the 1217a
  autofolder you need to fan out the paper so that each sheet is
  separated from the next. This can be a little bit tricky. Many other
  larger paper folding machines do not require you to fan the paper for
  folding. It isn’t a huge deal but it is slightly inconvenient.
• The
  Martin Yale 1217a is a manual setup paper folder. This means that you
  have to manually move the fold plates into the correct positions to
  change folding patterns. This can be a little bit difficult for
  inexperienced users, especially if you need to change folding patterns
  on a regular basis. If the fold plates are not set up correctly or are
  not completely square the paper folder may jam or cause the folds to
  come out crooked. If you expect that you will need to regularly change
  the fold plates and your operators are not mechanically inclined it may
  be a good idea to look at a larger auto setup folder such as the Martin
  Yale 2051 Smartfold.

Recommendation:

• The
  Martin Yale 1217a autofolder is what is sometimes referred to as a
  “bread and butter” folder. For years it has been one of the most
  popular folding machines chosen by quick printers, copy shops and in
  plant print shops.
• It offers the ability to fold large sheet
  sizes, heavy stocks and operates at high speeds. This makes it a great
  machine for medium to large sized churches, mailrooms and print shops.
• However ,
  the fact that you have to manually set up the fold plates on this
  machine does not make it an ideal machine for applications where
  multiple fold patterns are required and inexperienced operators will be
  required to use the machine.

About the author

Related Posts

• Martin Yale 1601 Autofolder Electric Paper Folding Machine Review
• Martin Yale 400 Tabletop Paper Jogging Machine Review
• Martin Yale 12-Station Model 6120 Electric Collator Review
• Martin Yale BCS210 10up Business Card Slitter Review
• Martin Yale Intimus BCS410 Ten Up Business Card Slitter Product Review