Aimed at small and medium sized printers, the manual feed device uses a 30W laser with an estimated life of 45,000 hours, has an 860x610mm cutting bed and a compact 1,365x880mm footprint.
It can cut, crease, engrave and perforate a variety of materials and is intended for the production of high quality bespoke stationery, greetings cards, menus, packaging, jigsaws and lanterns in runs from one to 500 products.
It is driven by a standard PC and will accept Coreldraw and Adobe Illustrator files. Output speed depends on the complexity of the design and could range from 18 seconds for a simple personalised bookmark to six minutes for a highly-patterned folding box.
Markus Rall, managing director of Polar, said: "We are introducing this first in Europe and then overseas. This is our first, manual entry-level machine but we will look to add automation, reviewing price-performace options, and we expect to announce further developments at Drupa.
"We think this first product offers printers a chance to differentiate without a large capital expenditure or tooling costs."
The Digicut Laser is currently undergoing beta testing in Germany, which has resulted in a number of improvements, such as a change from a square to a honeycomb matrix for the cutting bed.
"As we are cutting through the material the smoke and dust can get off the material [with the honeycomb matrix] thus creating less burning on the edges," said Matthias Langer, senior product marketing manager at Polar.
Paul Thompson, Polar product specialist at Heidelberg UK, said: "Digicut is a head-turner. The quality of cut, to very fine detail, is excellent and it can engrave without leaving marks on the reverse of the stock.
"In the UK we believe it will offer a cost-effective option for the quick or commercial printer who wants to stand out from the crowd and a tool for packaging companies looking to produce bespoke personalised presentation and sample carton models."
The Digicut Laser is due to start shipping in September and will be priced at around £40,000 in the UK.
