The 30-sheets/min slitter-cutter-creaser machine was installed at the Nottingham-based firm’s production facility two weeks before the show, with the near-line installation timed for a specific Budget-related project that involved 750,000 cards.

“We were finding that small jobs, web-to-print and the like were causing a major bottleneck on the guillotine, we’re very impressed with it and for the Budget project we had our digital operators running it 24/7,” said Prime managing director Jon Tolley.

“We couldn’t have really taken on this project without the 646,” he added.

The DC-646Pro is Duplo’s next generation of slitter-cutter-creaser that is capable of up to eight slits, 25 cross-cuts and 20 creases in a single pass. It had its first public outing at Ipex.

The multi-finisher has a top speed of 30sheets/min and can handle sheets from 370x999mm down to 210x210mm, with a minimum finished product size of 48x28mm. It has a stock range of 110-350gsm.

According to Tolley: “From day one it has made a big difference to us, within hours of going in we had jobs leaving the digital department completely finished – they didn’t need to go to the finishing department and that makes a hell of difference to our productivity.”

Tolley attended the first day of Ipex to officially sign off the installation of the firm’s £70,000 machine.