The firm has added the unit to a CreaseStream Plus at its new showroom, which it opened this month. However, the unit will get its official launch at the show in May (Hall 10, Stand C61).

Tech-ni-fold managing director Graham Harris said that both suction-fed and friction-fed systems are prone to problems, so the company developed the Gravity Flow Feeder, which employs elements of both technologies.

He said: "At Drupa, we are going to make a big statement in the world of digital finishing.

"Feeding medium to heavy stock materials has long been a problematic area using conventional methods; getting air-flow equally dispersed throughout the sheets to enable them to feed constantly can be time consuming and unproductive.

"Our Gravity Flow Feeder was designed to separate and feed heavier loads, quickly and efficiently without interruption, reducing unnecessary downtime and cost."

The system relies on a combination of moving parts, including a deck of rollers, integrated to aid free-flowing sheets. The specially-developed angled feed adjuster and belt-drive work together to shuffle, separate and advance each sheet toward the pre-cylinder accelerator, which drives them on, opening up a gap so that inline folding and other finishing operations may be carried out.

According to Harris, the pre-cylinder accelerator also guarantees precise transfer of each individual sheet to the tooling shafts, so that crease, micro-perforation and cut register is "highly consistent and accurate".

Tech-ni-fold has applied for a patent for the feeder system.

The company has doubled the size of its Leicester showroom, which now features the original tri-creaser products, as well as a separate area for its Creasestream machines. It plans to host a series of open days in the near future.