"Typically to print and [offline] foil a job costs around 170/200 per thousand sheets. Doing it all inline you can halve that," said OFT director John Hopkinson. "There are no die costs, makeready is minimal, your operating speed is higher and its all inline."

Prices for the die-less system, which can produce foil halftones at 120dpi or higher, start at around 150,000. It works in a similar way to MAN Roland's Prindor and Heidelberg soon to launched foiling system by using one press unit to apply the glue via a plate and the other the foil via the blanket cylinder.

Where the system differs is that it can be used with single or twin foil ribbons as standard (with an option for more).

"And because our tension control, we believe, is the best there is we can reuse the foil by rewinding the foil to the same tension as was used by the foil manufacturer," said Hopkinson.

"It can't index the foil yet... that's not easy to do but it is something we'll keep looking at."

It works on any B1 or B2 press that uses a five- or seven-o'clock cylinder configuration, and can also be custom-built for larger presses. Foiltone can be fitted anywhere on a press, most commonly the first two units, which then allows the foil to be overprinted.

Although the product was developed initially to be retrofittable, the firm is in discussions with several manufacturers about the possibility of it being specified for new machines.

The Cheadle, Cheshire-based firm has had products in beta testing in Germany and the UK for over a year, and has already sold its first system to a UK greetings card printer. The unnamed firm has fitted the system on the first two units of a six-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster CD102.

OFT, which only began officially trading this week, has also launched Flitone. The system allows greetings card and packaging printers to apply Flitter (foil-based glitter) inline on a sheetfed press.

Flitone works by converting one coating on  UV curing press to an Anilox roller unit with a special chamber doctor blade to apply the Flitter which is suspended in a UV varnish allowing precise application.

"This method produces a better product [than the traditional method], it's faster and it's all inline," said Hopkinson.

Foiltone and Flitone are manufactured by a UK engineering firm for OFT.

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