Feeding innovation through experience is a guiding principle at Straight Shooter. Entrepreneur and founder Jim Kaiping started the company with a simple goal: to provide modular, robust, dependable, and fast feeding equipment for the print, mail, and packaging industries.
After more than 30 years of selling and servicing a wide variety of mailing and printing equipment, I saw impressive advances in machine technology, including faster and more versatile equipment. But feeder improvements were incremental at best. The same problems that plagued friction feeders when I started—crooked feeding, double feeds, frequent jams, and cumbersome setup—were still common. So, in late 2004, Straight Shooter was born. We began with a simple goal: make a feeder that feeds straight.
Jim Kaiping · Founder
Today, every Straight Shooter feeder uses our patented Buckle Separation™ technology to separate documents, paper, and envelopes. Alignment guides then keep each item on track to ensure it feeds straight. Other companies have tried to match our approach, but Straight Shooter feeders stand apart for their performance, reliability, digital innovation, modular design, and ease of service—all of which help make them dependable and profitable.
Feeder service was another area in need of improvement. Traditional friction feeders can be difficult to maintain. Even a routine task, such as changing feed belts, can become a time-consuming and expensive service call. As a result, operators may continue running machines that need service, reducing production.
On Straight Shooter feeders, all belts can be changed in minutes using just one Allen wrench. That makes users more likely to replace belts when needed, helping optimize feeder performance and improve production.
Fast-forward to today: with 40 years of experience and tens of thousands of feeders in the field, Straight Shooter continues to expand and introduce digital innovations. Our goal is to ensure feeding technology keeps pace with rapid changes across the mailing, printing, packaging, and bindery industries.
Based in Fenton, Missouri, Straight Shooter Equipment Company continues to grow as a leading feeder manufacturer, serving OEMs, dealers, and end users with innovative feeding solutions—backed by experience and a commitment to performance that always feeds straight.
As a longtime provider of innovative printing equipment—including the best-selling and most widely installed inkjet envelope press—we found a partner in Straight Shooter that delivers not only more productive feeding, but also constant innovation. With Straight Shooter’s great feeding systems, inkjet and future print technologies will continue to advance for many decades to come!
Tim Murphy · President and CEO of Printware and the iJetColor envelope press
Make a feeder that feeds straight.The goal from day one · Jim Kaiping, founder
