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About

In 1932 that belief was prevalent when Lawrence, "Tommy" Tompkins started the company. In the midst of the Great Depression and employed as the national sales manager for Kluge Letterpresses, he saw the need for a service based company to support those customers. He left Kluge and opened the doors for Tompkins Printing Equipment Company on Dearborn Street in the heart of Printers Row in Chicago.

Tompkins is very proud to be in its 87th year as the most established Printing equipment dealer in Illinois. A family owned business, presently managed by the 3rd generation and a full service dealer with a parts and service department second to none. We are all dedicated to superior customer service.

Tompkins first opened our doors in 1932 at 608 S. Dearborn in the heart of ‘Printers Row’ in downtown Chicago. Their primary business was rebuilding letter presses and related equipment. Within a short period of time they grew to move into larger facilities at 705 S. Dearborn. The changing printing technologies and business expansion in 1945 again had them move to even larger facilities at 712 S. Clark Street. In 1976, under his sons Larry and Bob Tompkins moved to their present 26,000 SF location in Schiller Park.

Their enterprising spirit lead to several partnerships with major finishing manufacturers. Today Tompkins handles the world’s finest digital imaging, bindery and digital finishing, providing both sales and service support for all types of equipment. Products such as: digital printers, offset presses, small and large format printers, CTP, UV coaters, spot coaters, cutters, collators, shrink wrap systems, folders, gluing systems, drills, stitchers, laminators, automated material handling systems, computer automation control systems - virtually everything for small, medium and large printer. Tompkins showroom displays a million dollar inventory of both new and used equipment in our Schiller Park facility.

We represent Arpac, Astro, Baumfolder, Brackett, Challenge, C.P. Bourg, Clamco, CWT Worktools, Deluxe Stitcher, Duplo, Glunz & Jensen, GMS, Kompac, Morgana, Microcut, Saber & Prism, Sackel, Rosback, Streamfeeder, Tec Lighting, Vivid, and Xante, just to name a few.

Today the 3rd generation leadership of Steve and Bill, have maintained those manufacturer relationships and continue to expand with new partnerships and newer technologies. Tompkins appreciates it's many customers and manufacturers who have helped it's growth throughout the long company history.

Tompkins is proudly active in the following graphic art associations:

What people say about us

When came time to purchase a new folder we looked to Tompkins first. The Baumfolder is running great! Thank you Tompkins for always taking care of us on our Prism cutters, Duplo and Bourg finishing equipment too. Your service tech's are always helpful and keep us running.

Tom Hoganson

Graphic Arts Services

FCL Graphics appreciates the long term relationship we have cultivated with Tompkins. We are a 24/7 service driven company, as with all successful companies smart investment is a key factor. FCL partnered with Tompkins as a vendor on 3 Saber cutter systems among other digital finishing equipment that have proven to align with the company's strategy. Tompkins has been a great source of information and partner for FCL and Carol has always been spot on with us and understands our goals. We are very pleased to call Tompkins a valued partner in the growth of our business.

Kurt Kunde

FCL Graphics

Like to thank you and your service department for the fast response we receive when we needed it most. Our Bourg BB3002 binder has serve us very well throughout the years. It is a large part of our book business and it's critical to us for time sensitive jobs to be up and running quickly. We also love our Saber cutter and Duplo 600i system, we are pleased that Tompkins is full line Duplo dealer. Tompkins service has been very supportive of our needs and we appreciate everyone efforts. Happy you are there for us!

Joe Racine Jr.

In-Print Graphics

Just wanted to thank you and the company!
I called this morning to let them know the Acme stitcher was down and your service gentleman is already here!!
What wonderful service!
Thank you again and Chris for getting someone out here the same day! Wow!!! impressed!
Thank you!

Cindy Backman

Good morning Bill,
Thank you so much for selling us the Bourg booklet maker and for the
excellent training that Scott provided!
We were able to set the equipment up yesterday and run a difficult order that the Bourg did an excellent job of running.
Thank you again - it has been our pleasure to work with you!

Rod Church

LithoTech

Dear Steve,
I'm very happy to say, I think we achieved that goal. I know why Tompkins has been in business for 80 years, you definitely are service orientated to your customers. Please feel free to use Muncie Novelty as a reference. I will personally vouch for Tompkins Printing Equipment any way I can!

Brian Overholt

Indiana Ticket Co.

Hi Bill,
Just wanted to let you know we appreciated all your help in expediting our getting the Morgana BM-350 Booklet Maker and AutoCreaser 33 Pro in a timely manner. They're both working great! We're hopefully looking forward to getting good performance from both machines for many years to come!

George Tabac

Bible Students Publications

The Duplo DC-618 has increased efficiency and accuracy in our whole print and folded card business. The job creator is simple and easy to use. You can create a job template in seconds rather than having to setup a scoring machine. It has saved our staff hours of setup time in many jobs, and we have only had it for a few weeks. This Duplo DC-618 is changing our business in more ways than we could have imagined. Tompkins staff was patient and understanding for our situation. Thank you to all the Tompkins staff that helped us along the way! Would highly recommend!

Jay Crots

CutCardStock

We had a new Challenge Titan 265TC Paper Cutter in our shop and up and running within a week of my first phone call to Tompkins. Everything went smoothly from the beginning with quotes, ordering, shipping and installation. I would highly recommend Tompkins!

Ron Van Gerpen

The Label Printers

We were very pleased with the technicians who came to install the equipment, not only for their obvious technical knowledge, but also for their professionalism and their skill at dealing with everyone for training. Whenever we have an equipment need, or if we need any servicing done, Tompkins is the first place we call!

Jeffrey Sullivan

Knox Community High School

I originally bought our first automated booklet maker 18 years ago. It was an astronomical investment that opened up new markets and yielded us more sales. Kind of became a basic tool for services we offered. It was a love/hate relationship as the machine aged. In recent years, the CP Bourg booklet maker required me to have to really tweak many machine settings to get the simplest of jobs completed. End of life assigned to it from the manufacturer meant it’s time was nearing.
With less staff and still needing to provide booklet making services to maintain sales it became apparent I find a new booklet maker. Certainly, I wasn’t excited about spending the money but losing existing work was out of the question. I also needed a reliable, automated and productive machine that could run without as much operator input. (Seems to be a common goal in post COVID business.)

After some research, I decided to order a machine made by Duplo from Tompkins Printing Equipment. The machine was half the cost of the first one I bought 18 years ago. The new machine is tiny in all aspects. However, it is highly intuitive and can produce a significant volume. It eliminates the need for 10 separate bins to collate and simply feeds from one small unit called a sheet feeder. Because our jobs are printed digitally nowadays, we simply run the book pages in reverse order put them in the booklet maker and when it picks up the sheets it reverses the order to the correct sequence. The sheet feeder delivers a precise/ programmed number of sheets to the saddle stitcher, then to the knife folder and then to the face trimmer. It’s very quiet, has modest speeds but is proving to be far more productive than the machine it replaced. And that alone will keep the gray hairs off my head.
It uses ultrasonic waves to detect double sheet errors. It also provides a positive electric charge to each sheet before entering the booklet maker thus eliminating static electricity and the problems associated with it.
Unfortunately, the first job on the new machine couldn’t have had more difficult specifications built in. First it was a 48 page book, 3000 books thus being 36,000 sheets of paper. The paper is coated and very susceptible to static electricity issues. The number of pages was too great for us to face trim the edge of the book on the old booklet maker. This one does it with ease and quietly. Here’s a couple of videos from some work I did this afternoon. Thanks for letting me share.

Rick Marks

Rutledge Printing

“International Label & Printing continues investing in equipment that promotes its future growth.

When it came time to replace a smaller Challenge cutter, we started looking into a larger cutter. We had been researching an upgrade for a while, and we discussed the Saber with Tompkins. We first saw this cutter a few years ago at the last print show in Chicago, and were very impressed. It was on our wish list and while it was a much bigger machine and larger investment, we felt the products it could handle and speed would help improve our production. Lucky for us Tompkins had used 54” Saber Cutter on their floor, and after the comparisons and history of the cutter they gave us, we decided to move forward and purchase this great cutter.

We are very happy with the Saber and the support from Tompkins.”

Mark Turk, President International Label & Printing

Mark Turk

International Label & Printing

Chuck Pease from CJ Printing is happy with the capabilities of his new Xante EnPress and how it has changed his production.

“The Xante EnPress has helped me remove all offset production equipment and become fully digital”

“The Xante EnPress has allowed me to produce my envelopes/invitations much faster, less expensive and more easily than ever before”

Chuck Pease

CJ Printing