Since the Royal Mail introduced Pricing in Proportion in August 2006, the cost of sending mail has been calculated by size and shape, as well as weight. This has since resulted in businesses working to find cost-effective ways to send bulk mail, which is where a folding machine comes into its own.

Folding machines are available across the price spectrum and with a wide range of specifications and capabilities. However much mail your business sends out, you will find that sourcing the right folding machine for your needs will be saving you money within months.

The cost of your folding machine will soon be outweighed by savings in a two-fold area ' saving both staff time spent folding letters, while also folding your post to the smallest and cheapest size according to Royal Mail's Pricing in Proportion policy. A folding machine that meets your requirements will be paying for itself within a short time and is surely an inevitable choice for any company sending out bulk mail.

Folding machines are available across the price spectrum and range in size from small desktop models to large-scale, high-volume folding machines, which do require more space but are also very well-designed and still surprisingly compact for the job that they do.

Starter machines are perfect for a small business sending out occasional bulk mail in restricted quantities. They are usually streamlined, with a modern design which means they are an unobtrusive desk-top addition to the workplace and are highly affordable, costing little more than a small desk-top printer. They can take a paper-size of up to A4, usually have non-skid feet fitted and some folding machines are capable of folding up to 30 letters a minute or 1,800 sheets per hour.

Bigger and more substantial folding machines are usually equivalent in size to a large desktop printer and are easily accommodated in the main area of any office. Taking paper up to A4 in size, these machines are capable of folding up to 155 sheets per minute and can execute a number of different folding techniques.

Jumping up the specification range the more robust pieces of folding equipment for the medium-sized company in the business of regularly sending out bulk mail can take a paper size up to and including A3 and usually have a feed-table that can be loaded with up to 500 sheets at any one time. These machines folds paper at a maximum rate of 9,000 sheets per hour, and can be easily cleaned.

For those companies in the business of sending out very large quantities of bulk mail, then you require a highly user-friendly machine which has a modular design, and so can be built with some of your specific requirements in mind. Some folding machines can process a staggering 30,000 sheets per hour and no business involved in bulk mailing can afford to be without this serious piece of equipment.