It is the final machine in the Morgana range to be given an "intelligent" upgrade, aiding ease of use.

The rest of the Pro range was launched at Ipex last year and while Morgana did not plan to launch a folder, as it did not expect there to be a market for the machine, it was persuaded to do so by a high number of customer enquiries.

Morgana managing director Quen Baum said: "We were not sure it was necessary, but we got a lot of customers asking why we hadn't done it; they felt we missed a trick. It has been produced by popular request."

Baum added that the machine would be aimed at a different market to the traditional Docufold.

"You don't need any know-how to run the machine," he said. "You just push a button and it automates and the sheets come out the other end. Companies with skilled staff, who have been running folders for years, may not want to pay the extra for the automation. But there will be a lot of start-up digital printers that will be interested in the machine."

He said that the original Docufold would still be available at a lower price point. But he added: "When you look at the machine over five years, the difference in price really isn't very big at all."

The Docufold Pro, which is expected to retail for around £8,200, features Morgana's smartscreen touchscreen technology. It can handle sheet sizes up to 674 x 365mm with a maximum fold length of 300mm. The Pro offers a range of production speeds with a maximum of 27,500 A4 sheets an hour dropping to 18,000 when handling the A3 format.

It also features a proof fold button which sends three sheets of the job through for a final check of the job before production commences.