Duplo International expanded the capabilities of the unique DC-645 Production Colour Finisher with the launch Duplo International expanded the capabilities of the unique DC-645 Production Colour Finisher with the launch of the new PFM-01 perforation module, allowing customers to produce a much greater range of work. The DC-645 is Duplo's second generation intelligent finishing solution for the digital print sector and combines the functions of slitting, trimming and creasing in one pass.

The new module enables perforation to be carried out at the same time as other finishing operations, allowing extremely cost effective production of printed material that requires tear-off sections such as direct mail pieces with reply forms or vouchers, stubs for books, calendars and cheques or packaging such as CD trays. It can be attached quickly and easily to the DC-645, saving both labour and space.

“As developments in digital output technology allow printers to continue to push the boundaries of the type of work that can be produced, there is also a need to have a greater range of finishing options,” says Peter Dyson, product marketing manager for Digital Finishing Solutions at Duplo International.

“This has resulted in Duplo's DC-645 becoming established as a popular solution to the need to slit/trim and crease media once it has come out of the digital press. The new perforating module is the result of listening carefully to what our customers want and this will be followed by other major value-added options for the DC-645 over the coming months.”

Working in the same way as the DC-645's business card module, the perforation module is provided as a customer replaceable unit that simply slots into the existing machine. It allows the operator to make up to two continuous perforations parallel to the feeding direction and these can be combined within a job along with the standard six slitters plus cutter and creaser.

Each tool position can be programmed by 0.1 mm increments and can be set up automatically to the desired location from the machine's memory. When not required, the tools move automatically out of the way, allowing consecutive jobs, needing perforating or not, to be run without operator intervention, making it ideal for the short run digital print sector. Programming is enabled through the operator panel or through the graphical design program ‘Duplo Job Creator' which runs on both PC and Mac platforms.

The vacuum-fed DC-645 uses a built-in camera to automatically read the printed image on each sheet and adjust settings automatically to compensate for movement, ensuring accurate slitting, trimming, creasing and perforating of every sheet. In addition, the camera can read a bar code on the sheet that identifies which of the 80 different job templates is required for that job.