The  product will incorporate the Ferag Rollstream feeder and the latest Kolbus perfect binder.

Juerg Moeckli, sales director at Ferag in Zurich, said that the product was "beyond the prototype stage", but that a launch date had not yet been set.

"Instead of Kolbus having their feeders for the different sections, we replace their feeders with our high-performance Rollstream unit," he said.

"This was initialised by customers because they saw the potential in our gathering units," said Moeckli. The two companies began talks on the project around six months ago.

He added: "Our two companies are quite similar. We are a family company, and they are partly family. Together with their knowledge about perfect binding and our knowledge about gathering units, I think the product which we are going to show will be fantastic."

The company claims that the machine will be capable of speeds up to 45,000cph with fast make-ready times.

Ferag has announced several other new products to be launched at Drupa. Rollsert is an inserter for the newspaper market, and is aimed at  small- to mid-size circulation papers with a high number of inserts.

Polystream is a polybagging product which is positioned upstream from the foil-wrapping process, and which can, the company claims,  double net speeds.

Ferag will also launch UniDrum, a gatherer-stitcher for the middle- to lower-circulation range.

Story by Josh Brooks