At the show in Lucerne next week (February 14-17), Renz will launch the AP 360 – 120 block-to-block book block punch system.

According to Renz, the modular machine can sit behind any digital press to cut bottlenecks as the print moves in to the punching process. The machine is designed to fill the gap between high-speed punching systems and fully automated lines and can also be used with litho presses.

Renz international marketing manager Daniel Pooley said: "A lot of systems are inline, but because the user may not always need to use our machines we prefer near-line.

"It is very simple and it's very exciting for us as a company to see it launched at Innovationsdays. We have a very important potential customer coming to the event to see it in action."

The machine has a working width of 360mm and is an evolution of the firm's AP 360 high speed punch. It takes pre-collated book blocks and feeds them one by one; the block then drops into the feeding belts. Sheets are then picked and belt driven into the punching die.

The blocks are then rotated around a drum into an optional nail hole or round-corner punch. When ejected, the book blocks are cross stacked onto a deep pile pallet delivery system in the same sequence ready for binding production whether it is offline, near-line or online.

Also on show at the Innovationdays event will be the Renz P500 heavy-duty punch machine and the MOBI 500 semi-automatic wire binder.