Right Angle (Cross) Folds

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CROSS FOLDING ON A 2 PLATE FOLDING MACHINE

Most folding machines cannot perform a cross fold.  Those that can are shown below.  Generally, they have 2 fold plates which allows them to perform either 1 (half) or 2 (trifold) folds on a sheet of paper during the first pass.  After all of the paper has been folded lengthwise, the machine is set up and loaded for the second fold.  This requires an operator to properly set up the machine, pinch the folded edge of the stack of paper, and place it precisely in the feed tray.  The feed tires must be aligned properly for this to work.  If you are folding more than a few hundred, you should consider a Cross Fold System.  See below.

On the second (cross) fold, these machines can fold either in half or in thirds.  So the final result is a paper that is either 1/4 or 1/3 of the original size, or 5.5" x 4.25" (1/4) or 3.7" x 2.84" (1/3).  These are called a Cross Fold and a Baronial Fold respectively.

CROSS FOLDING ON A 4 PLATE FOLDING MACHINE

A different type of folding machine called a pharmaceutical folder has 4 fold plates, so it can fold paper into smaller sizes, down to 1/8 of the length of a sheet of paper. However due to the thickness of the paper, the smallest cross fold they can perform is 1/6 of the paper on the first fold, then into thirds. So the smallest for a letter size piece of paper would be 2.84" x 3.7" on the more common 2 plate machine, but down to 1.84" x 2.84 on the 4 plate machines. NOTE THAT THIS APPLIES ONLY TO PAPER THAT IS NOT THICK OR GLOSSY.

All cross fold machines are listed below.

They vary greatly in capabilities. Call us with your application for a recommendation.