The University of Sheffield has installed the UK’s first Made in Japan Multigraf Touchline CF375 XPro creaser/folder.
The development follows two years after Duplo acquired Swiss manufacturer Technigraf during Drupa two years ago. It has been installed in the university’s revamped Print & Creative Services operation where it will be handling work to support the teaching staff, the smooth operating of the institution and more commercial products including greetings cards, menus and marketing collateral.
Print operations manager Michelle Barraclough says: “Our previous finishing setup required separate passes for creasing and folding, creating a bottleneck on heavier or laminated stocks. This was particularly restrictive when the team was processing digitally printed or laminated work, where maintaining a high quality finish without cracking was essential.”
Versatility was key to the choice of the Multigraf. It can cope with 400gsm materials as well as double-sided digital prints and runs at 6,000sph. The crease and fold in a single operation delivers folded sheets without cracking and, says Barraclough, “has helped us reduce production time and remove a significant finishing bottleneck”.
The bottlenecks tend to arrive ahead of the start of the academic year, then during graduation, clearing and the conference season. The workload has been such at these times that some has had to be outsourced. This is no longer the case.
The order was placed at the start of June during the ICPA conference for academic inplant operations. The University won two awards during the event and was highly commended in two other categories.
The shift to manufacturing in Japan has enabled Duplo to upgrade the CF375 to the XPro version. This adds a new touch screen and simple to follow operator interface, additional automation, improvements to job processing. Improvements to the design have elevated the creaser folder to a more robust machine capable of greater consistency across different materials and job types.
