Duplo's Digital System 5000 Pro is its latest automatic nearline bookletmaking product for digital print. It comprises several modules centred around its latest digital sheet feeder, the DSF-5000, and its heavyweight bookletmaker, the DBM-500. It's also possible to add the firm's slit-cut-crease (SCC) unit between the two modules, which can pre-crease sheets for flatter documents and also uses its image location and trimming tools to compensate for any image drift on the digitally printed sheets. Finally, after the DBM-500 it's possible to replace the stacker with the ASM-500 module to produce square-backed books.
Duplo launched its first bookletmaking line based on a digital sheet feeder rather than a set of collating towers back in 2001. The premise of a digital sheet feeder is simple - as a digital press can print a job in book order, you can eliminate the need for collation before binding. This brings a couple of advantages: finishing can start as soon as you've got the first stack off the press, which means the job can be finished that much quicker; there's no need for a collator; and there's one less process to introduce errors through feed jams.
Duplo product marketing manager for digital finishing Peter Dyson says the firm has a challenge to convince printers of the benefits of a digital sheetfed system over a collator. "The presses we serve nearline are getting faster, so we needed a more productive machine," says Dyson. "The question is should you take a machine like this that takes collated sets off the press or should you use a collator?"
He adds that collator sales are up as firms are using litho working practices on digital output. "A lot of customers have a dyed-in-the-wool approach and want things to follow a pre-set pattern of pre-press, print and post-press."
Dyson argues that although a collator may run faster, running speed doesn't translate into getting jobs out of the door faster if it adds additional processes. "We need to educate printers about the advantages of a nearline feeder."
Firms without a finishing heritage tend to get the concept and want a single, easy-to-use machine rather than multiple processes. "They expect it to be like their digital presses - you press a button and the job comes out," he says.
When Duplo first conceived its digital sheet feeder the primary task was marrying monochrome digital pages with litho printed colour covers.
In the meantime the market's needs have changed as digital volumes have increased and colour has come to the fore. "We needed a faster machine more biased towards colour that suited printers' applications," says Dyson. "Something that suits offset replacement work."
However, the machine also needs to be able to handle high-volume monochrome work, which has developed in the past few years with the launch of 250+ppm duplex machines, such as the Océ Varioprint 6000, the Xerox Nuvera 288 and Kodak's Digimaster 300EX.
"There's a move to one big monochrome press with one operator rather than two presses and two operators," says Dyson. "And you can't have a bookletmaker that can't keep up with the press, as they slow the speed of the whole line."
Built to last
The first thing that strikes you when looking at the DFS-5000 feeder is how robust it is. It looks like a scaled-down feeder from an offset press. In part, that is due to the new deep-pile (610mm) stack height and partly due to the design, which allows a pallet to be wheeled from the digital press directly into the DSF. Currently it supports HP Indigo presses, with Xerox about to be added. Duplo says it will develop wheel-in capability for any digital press as customer demand grows.
The 610mm stack is enough for 6,000 100gsm sheets, which, with a flat-out speed of 400 sheets per minute (24,000per hour) or the more typical production speed of 200 sheets per minute when using OMR and barcode reading, means a stack will keep the machine in production for 15-30 minutes. An optional cover feeder (CF), which is adapted from two stations from the DC-10-60 collator, offers two 60mm capacity trays, which can be used to feed covers, inserts and rush jobs or keep the machine running while the pallet is changed. As of next year it will be possible to configure a tandem version with two feeders to double capacity.
All the feeders can handle a wider range of stock weights, with the heaviest weight upped from 250gsm to 300gsm. The lightest stock remains 64gsm. The feeders are top-feeding, using a suction belt to pick up the sheet and air to separate the sheets on three sides. To enable the high operating speed, active anti-static devices are fitted.
The paper path of the DSF-5000 inverts the sheets to ensure no changes need to be made to the standard digital press output mode of cover-first, face down. A 10-sheet buffer in the feeder also helps to boost production speed to typically two to three times faster than the DSF-2000 feeder.
Bookletmaking speed depends on the pages per book, but also on what mode the machine is operating in. If the square-back finisher is used, speed is pegged at a maximum of 1,400 books per hour, but as you'd probably only want to square-back books over 12-sheets it's not likely to slow down production.
High-end options
For the highest quality, Duplo offers the SCC unit, which can crease the pages to produce flatter books and also centres sheets by trimming the margins to compensate for image drift on digital devices. Using the SCC slows the line down to 60 sheets per minute, but that's still 240 A4ppm, which is enough grunt to handle the output from two top-end sheetfed colour machines.
In addition to serving the cut-sheet market, Duplo also believes it has applications for firms running continuous-feed machines with a proportion of output as booklets that it would be uneconomic to use an inline device for.
The DBM-500 has an option for a four-station stitcher, to enable two-up production of A5 landscape books and CD inserts. "This is very popular for digital printers, as by getting two books per sheet you halve click charges," says Dyson.
In addition to more speed and higher capacity, there are increased demands for integrity and auditing that can prove that a book has the correct pages.
"There is a move to integrate the machine into more complicated environments with the demand for personalisation and auditing," adds Dyson.
To that end the firm has beefed up the barcode reading system in a number of areas including support for 2D barcodes and adding a barcode reader to the delivery to check the completed documents as well as the submitted pages.
The need for this increased integrity is coming from printers serving financial services with pension and insurance documents, where clients increasingly demand evidence on an item level that production has been carried out correctly.
Dyson points out there's another benefit of an audit log: "If there are any problems it allows you to get jobs into the reprint queue more quickly."
Using the new integrity feature slows the machine down by about 10%, or more for smaller barcodes, but Dyson says the benefits outweigh the marginal speed penalty.
"You don't want the extra time and expense of someone on the end of the line checking every book," he says.
When it comes to integrating the system, the JDF plug-in already works with Ultimate's JDF imposition tool and Dyson expects integration with HP's SmartStream Director in the near future.
While the Digital System 5000 Pro is now Duplo's top-of-the-range line, it has kept the existing models to provide a range of machines to suit different requirements for speed and sophistication: the Basic 5000 Pro is a little under £80,000 compared to £55,000 for the 5000, while fully loading to include the SCC, square-back unit and full barcode reading capability pushes the Pro up to over £125,000, while a fully featured 5000 is more modestly priced at a shade under £90,000.
With its added production power, automation, integration and integrity features the 5000 is a welcome addition to the digital finishing arena and a sign of the way digital print is growing up.
SPECIFICATIONS
Description Nearline bookletmaker aimed at higher-volume digital print facilities
Speed
Without trim and crease:from 580 A3-A4 25-sheet books per hour to 3,960 A4-A5 two-sheet books per hour
With trim and crease: from 138 25-sheet books per hour to 1,200 two-page books per hour
Max sheets per book 25
Max sheet size 500x356mm
Min sheet size 210x120mm
Stock range 64-300gsm
Pile height 610mm (6,000 sheets)
Price
Basic 5000 Pro: £78,775
Comprising: DSF-5000 sheet feeder, cover feeder, DBM500 booklet maker and trimmer & PC
Fully loaded 5000 Pro:£126,105
As above but also includes three barcode kits, an antistatic kit, slit-cut-crease (SCC) unit and square-back unit
Contact Duplo International 01372 468 131 www.duplointernational.com
THE ALTERNATIVES
Horizon HOF-20 & SPF 200A
The HOF-20 shingles and stream feeds the SPF 200A using a rotating suction drum. Horizon doesn't offer an equivalent to the SCC unit. For square-backed books a Watkiss or Plockmatic unit can be fitted. OMR is standard.
Speed 4,500 A5 books per hour
Max sheet size 500x350mm
Min sheet size 275x200mm
Stock range 64-256gsm
Price From £45,000
Contact GAE 020 8997 8053 www.gae.co.uk
Ibis SmartBinder
Innovative UK-designed and built system able to run at up to 150m per minute. Unique gluing option promises better lay-flat and there is an option to produce perfect-bound books up to 60mm thick. It is faster, at 12,000 books per hour and can handle book blocks up to 50 sheets (10mm).
Speed 6,000 per hour (12,000 for two-up production)
Max book size 320x225mm
Min book size 210x119mm (97x119mm two-up)
Stock range 50gsm plus
Price £125,000
Contact 01494 561950 www.ibis-bindery.com
