"Many companies are equipped with hand-fed platens or cylinders made 30 years ago or more, so the demand for the replacement of two or three such machines by one automatic die-cutter continues to grow," said product marketing manager Raphal Indermhle.

The 7,700sph Commercial 106 offers registration on either side of the sheet, paper handling enhancements, a tab-inserter interface, pivoting front joggers and non-stop pallet feeding.

To support the launch, Bobst has developed a Commercial Step modular training programme. It is designed to help those customers who are bringing die-cutting in-house for the first time or upgrading from cylinder machines.

"Different support packages help with tooling set-up and tooling specifications, project management and training, for example," said a Bobst UK spokesman.

The Commercial 106 can handle sheet sizes from 1,060x740mm down to 350x300mm, in thicknesses of 80gsm to 2,000gsm (or 4mmcorrugated board). It incorporates a View interface for online diagnostics.

The kit, demonstrated on Bobst's Ipexstand, will join the SPeria, SPanthera and Sprintera families of packaging die-cutters.