New Bedford, MA -- The first near-line sheet feeder that automatically transfers paper from different manufacturers' printers and stack carts while maintaining integrity of collated sets for production finishing, was announced today by C.P. Bourg, the world's leading technology developer and supplier of in-line and near-line document feeding, binding and finishing equipment.

The new Bourg BSF Sheet Feeder features an innovative air-table design that allows its operator to load and easily center stacks of collated sets from stack carts common to Canon, HP Indigo, Kodak NEXPRESS, Océ, Xerox and other manufacturer's printers.  The new sheet feeder will be shown next week at On Demand Expo in the C.P. Bourg booth #1715 connected to a Bourg BDF Document Finisher and a Baum K20 Knife Folder demonstrating high-efficiency finishing to reduce mailing costs. On Demand Expo takes place n Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Convention Center March 31-April 2.

The Bourg BSF is equipped with two feeding compartments that can accept pile heights of 20 inches for primary content and up to 6.3 inches for covers or other content, and it can feed up to 15,000 sheets/hour to various C.P. Bourg finishing modules.

The Bourg BSF detects double sheets or missed sheets from both compartments, and detects when either stack bin is empty.  Paper sizes can range from finished products smaller than a CD-ROM booklet to 14.33 x 22.5 inches - the largest sheet size currently handled by digital printers.

Optional barcode scanning with a flexible positioning scanner allows Bourg BSF users to read a bar code placed anywhere on the sheet, eliminating traditional "hard fixed" bar code placement.
"Despite their increasing speed, even fast digital print engines can't match the pace at which production finishing lines can operate, which makes near-line finishing financially attractive for some on-demand print environments," said Rick Trapilo, C.P. Bourg Executive Vice President and General Manager. "However, operators at shops with near-line finishing operations today have to manually transfer heavy stacks of collated paper sets from stacker carts to a sheet feeder, which increases the chances of damaged sheets and stacking errors in addition to risk of personal injury.

"By automatically transferring print output from different manufacturers' stack carts into the sheet feeder and making it easy to center the stack, the Bourg BSF enables users in on-demand print environments to reap the productivity benefits offered by near-line volume finishing - and especially as variable data printing (VDP) methods become more prevalent," Trapilo explained.

The Bourg BSF can connect to any or all of three C.P. Bourg finishing modules: the Bourg BCM Bleed-Crease Module, the Bourg BDF Document Finisher and Bourg's new BME E-Series Booklet Maker. Bourg's proven vacuum-belt technology is used throughout to accommodate a wide variety of paper types, weights and sizes without marking, scuffing or scratching.