The Crease Matic 150 programmable creaser, manufactured by Kas, came about after Ashgate Automation managing director John Price identified a substantial mid-market gap for a 1,000 to 8,000 machine.

"It's targeted at customers that have moved up from desk-top requirements, but can't really justify the fully automatic machines," said Price.

The 3,995 150 is capable of 2,000sph and can crease A5 to SRA3 stock up to 350gsm. The unit is stream-fed by hand and offers up to four programmable creases, with a memory for five jobs.

"We came up with the idea with Kas to produce this machine more or less the same as the bigger machines in capabilities but hand-fed rather than suction."

The first model has already been installed, but the official unveiling will be at Digital Print World.

Story by Darryl Danielli