February 16, 2004 -- Demonstrating its commitment to the graphic arts market, Duplo Corporation will show a series of sophisticated scaleable solutions that support both digital and offset print finishing requirements at Drupa 2004. Affirming its scaleable approach to product development, Duplo will launch its most revolutionary digital print finishing products to date - the new SCC (slit/cut/crease) bookletmaker - and its second generation digital slitting, creasing and trimming machine – the DC-645. Duplo will also show its benchmark bookletmaking and collating systems, the System 5000 and Duetto, as well as a variety of additional bookletmaking, printing, folding and bindery solutions. Dominic Quennell, vice president of marketing at Duplo Corporation comments, “Since Drupa 2000, we have seen the market embrace the benefits of digital print and the services which support it. At Duplo we have witnessed greater market demand for digital finishing systems that produce high quality, cost-effective results and are flexible in catering for a growing number of market applications. It’s these developments which have led to the production of products we refer to as scaleable or modular.” “By developing machines that communicate, our customers can upgrade or enhance their finishing systems as their businesses change and grow. For example, a traditional printer that wants to provide a combined offset and digital offering can easily upgrade a System 5000 to a Duetto by investing in a DSF-2000 sheetfeeder, without incurring huge costs by purchasing a second independent digital finishing system. By enhancing an existing system, a printer can expand their business in manageable stages.” SCC Bookletmaker The SCC (slit/cut/crease) bookletmaking system incorporates a DSF-2000 sheetfeeder (with optional barcode reader), the SCC unit, a DBM-500 bookletmaker and a DBM-500 trimmer. This system is unique in bringing a slit/cut/crease function to the near-line bookletmaking process. Designed principally for the production colour digital market, the SCC-equipped bookletmaking system takes care of two common issues associated with colour digital output. First, the SCC unit side-slits and trims the head and foot of each sheet. This provides an accurate full bleed trim which is registered by a CCD camera to the image, rather than to the physical dimensions of the sheet – this means that ‘image drift’ can be corrected. Second, the SCC module can crease the cover and innermost sheets of the booklet, or all the sheets in the booklet so that image cracking on the fold-line is prevented. For jobs where colour and black and white output is to be combined, the DSF 2000 sheetfeeder is equipped with two feed trays, so that one can be loaded with oversize colour output from one digital press and the other with finished-size black and white output from a different digital device. The coloured sheets are fed through the slitting, cutting and creasing units, while the finished-size black and white sheets are transported via a by-pass unit to the accumulation section of the bookletmaker. There the entire set is re-integrated, with the coloured sheets now the same format as the black and white sheets, ready to be stitched, folded and trimmed. DC-645 Slitter/Creaser/Trimmer Building on the success of the DC-545HCEX slitter/creaser/trimmer, Duplo is launching its second-generation machine - the DC-645. Like its predecessor, the DC-645 has the ability to read printed images and automatically adjust and compensate for the common problem of image shift. It trims, creases and slits in precisely the right place around the image every time, reducing waste and ensuring high quality and optimum productivity. It also combines slitting, trimming and creasing in one single product – so applications requiring these three functions can be handled in a single pass. However, the new features which set it apart from the DC-545HCEX are its high duty cycle, its ability to manage heavier substrates (up to 310gsm) and larger sheet sizes, and its ability to produce a six page brochure. With a state-of-the-art user interface, the DC-645 has been specifically developed to support the JDF industry standard. The popular DC 545 HCEX model remains as an entry-level machine for those customers whose requirements in terms of substrate weight and format are not as wide as those catered for by the new DC 645. DBM 500 2KT two-knife trimmer The DBM 500 2KT provides a uniquely modular approach to trimming all open sides of a booklet. An optional unit to the DBM 500T face trimmer, the DBM 500 2KT trims the head and foot of completed booklets, delivering them on a shingled belt delivery back to the operator station. The initial settings are programmed from a user interface on the trimmer and are then transferred to the main memory of the finishing modules. The operator can then call up frequently used jobs from a single user interface. The benefit of Duplo’s modular approach is that users can build up their system as their needs dictate, starting with a simple face-trim function then adding the head and foot trim when required. The design of the complete Duplo bookletmaker with three-knife trimming still enables side-stitched or corner-stitched sets to be produced. The overall benefit is that full-bleed jobs can now be transferred directly from the press to the finishing device without the need for trimming on a guillotine before or after stitching and folding. This saves a great deal of time and increases productivity. Additional new products to be shown at Drupa are: System 5000 Bookletmaking and Collating System The most advanced addition to Duplo’s bookletmaking family is the System 5000 bookletmaking and collating solution. The new system incorporates DC-10/60 collating towers, the dynamic DBM-500 bookletmaker, a face trimmer and a precision stacker and has been optimised for both the digital and offset markets. A fourth generation product developed to meet UP3i standardisation, the System 5000 provides a complete finishing solution for both commercial offset printers planning to migrate to digital, and for digital printers with a pre-press background looking for a productive and easy to operate solution. Capable of producing up to 5,000 booklets per hour, the DMB-500 has a centre-referenced paper transport system that provides a fully automated sheet transport system. The bookletmaker easily accommodates the entire range from minimum to maximum sheet sizes without any manual operator intervention and caters for on-demand applications such as CD and DVD sized booklets through to A4, A3 and oversize commercial print formats, alternating between the formats at the push of a button or, when part of a near-line or in-line system, under the control of a UP3I compatible controller. Duetto Bookletmaking and Collating System An advanced hybrid solution based on the System 5000, the Duetto bookletmaking and collating solution incorporates up to three DC-10/60 collating towers, a DSF-2000 dynamic sheetfeeder and DBM-500 bookletmaker, and is the first system of its kind to address both digital and offset requirements. The ability of the DBM-500 to handle set-by-set and sheet-by-sheet output with equal ease makes the system ideal for printers making the transition from offset to digital, allowing them to incorporate colour content and variable data into their finishing solutions. DF-915 Folder Duplo’s newest folding product is the automatic Duplo DF-915 folding machine. The DF-915 can be used with minimal training and enables people to multi-task easily, a growing requirement in today's production environment. Developed to replace the DF-520N folder, the DF-915 is a high-end desktop folding machine which accepts sheet sizes of up to A3 sized paper. The new product is 30% faster than Duplo’s previous offering. Targeted at small printers, direct mail houses and large offices the machine operates at speeds of 250 sheets of A4 paper per minute, which makes it the fastest product of its kind. The DF-915 incorporates a new feature - sound absorbers - which reduce the machine’s operational noise making it ideal for office environments. The DF-915 also addresses paper jams providing an easy jam clearance function. DP-460H Duprinter The DP-460H Duprinter has been designed specifically for the graphic arts market. It offers a cost-effective, alternative solution to short run offset printing, taking on single and spot colour jobs from 25 to 10,000 prints at 600dpi. Revolutionary features include a high pile infeed allowing printers to stack 3000 sheets, making the machine ideally suited to typical commercial run lengths. Automatic plate change is carried out within 26 seconds, and an offset stacker means that separate jobs can be offset stacked for easy identification at the end of the print run. The DP-460H also incorporates a vacuum infeed system which eliminates paper marking and offers faster rerun for duplex and spot colour work. Another advantage of the Duprinter is its ability to change ink colour in just 20 seconds, even with specialist colours such as gold and silver. The new Duprinter is ideal for producing order sheets, invitations, envelopes, exam papers, newsletters, score cards, menus, tickets, timetables and stationery etc. Once switched on, it can print or copy instantly onto a range of stocks from NCR to card and envelopes at weights of 53-210gsm, whilst achieving 120 A3 impressions per minute. The Duprinter DP-460H is fully network compatible (PC or Mac) with RIP or a Duplo print server, offering computer to press imaging and can print within seconds of turning it on, producing 1,000 prints in just ten minutes. DB-50 Binder Duplo’s DB-50 desktop perfect binder provides an ideal solution for short-run and on-demand printing jobs. The DB-50 incorporates a range of features, such as the ability to bind documents of any size up to B4 with or without a cover. The DB-50’s IH heater ensures the glue is ready within five minutes, thus shortening make-ready times and eliminating unhealthy fumes. The user-friendly operation of the DB-50 makes the machine a cost-effective tool for the production of books and booklets.