Paterson, NJ – Colter & Peterson/Microcut announced today the availability of C&P’s ancillary print finishing equipment has been integrated and certified by HP Indigo as compatible with HP Indigo Direct-to-Finish finishing automation. This integration is designed to make bindery departments more productive with a streamlined approach to capitalize on the growing trend of increased digital short-run production.  

With HP Indigo Direct-to-Finish, the HP SmartStream Production Pro print server submits the job’s cutting plan to C&P paper cutters in parallel of printing the job on HP Indigo digital presses. Once printing is completed, the cutter operator scans the job’s barcode to activate the automation. Company officials will elaborate at the Dscoop 11 digital printing conference, April 14-16 in San Antonio, Texas.

The cooperative effort between the two industry leaders figures to be a true advantage for any digital printing operation. Colter & Peterson (booth 608) is North America’s largest independent distributor of paper cutters and paper handling equipment. With over 80 years of benchmark results, the company also leads in rebuilding pre-used machines. 

The majority of Colter & Peterson’s new and old cutters are now equipped with the Microcut® automated back gauge system, with nearly 30,000 worldwide installations. HP Indigo Direct-to-Finish supports both new and old paper cutting machines. By combining the two, make-ready time is greatly reduced. The job layout is defined via the JDF file, and the operator just needs to scan a barcode to the paper cutter with set-up information and instructions on where to trim the sheet.

“We are excited to collaborate with Colter & Peterson,” said Gershon Alon, Worldwide Manager, Workflow Solutions and Partner Program at HP Indigo. “With the Microcut back gauge system, we can offer our current installed base to upgrade their legacy manual cutters into a state-of-the-art automated and highly efficient solution, removing the bottleneck in the production of high variety, short run jobs.”

“We are very proud to collaborate with HP and being involved with the Direct-to-Finish program,” said Richard Peereboom, Colter & Peterson’s Sales Manager. “HP has an impeccable reputation. The real advantage is the workflow software for digital presses is all encompassing and much more efficient than any other program in the marketplace. From our perspective, Microcut is the great equalizing solution and makes any user more profitable by saving time and money.” 

At Dscoop 11, a Microcut PLUS WS program will be demonstrated on a new Colter & Peterson Prism® P80 31.5” paper cutter next to an Indigo press in the HP booth. The Microcut PLUS WS program includes microcip® and microfacts® features; the benefit of microcip is pre-set programs can be uploaded via a network connection or USB device direct from the pre-press department. Besides the time savings, no additional hardware of software is necessary. Company technicians will explain how the program works and answer any questions.