Duplo’s claim to fame in the Indian market is more than 50 digital slitter-cutter-creaser systems that TechNova, its Indian representative, has installed at digital printing houses over past few years. However, the lesser known fact is that the Japanese manufacturer has also been manufacturing a range of post-press and digital devices such as collators, saddle stitchers, guillotines, paper folders, digital duplicators and inkjet printers among others.
Its latest addition to the portfolio is a compact digital spot varnishing equipment, DDC-810. Duplo’s Toshi Kimotsuiki was in India last month, when he introduced the machine to PrintWeek India team. The machine was discussed and previewed in the US last year, but the official India launch will be at Pamex 2017 from 18-21 December.
However, the machine is available for bookings, according to Kimotsuiki.
The DDC-810 prints clear UV spot varnish with the option of raised and textured finishes for embossing effect. It can handle sheets up to 364x740mm and 157 to 450 gsm.
“It is compatible with any SRA3 digital press, and is not limited to digitally embossing at this size. With a maximum sheet size of 364mm x 740mm, you can cut a B2 along its length and load the sheets in to the deep pile feeder. After starting the spot UV printing process, the operator can leave it running for up to 30 minutes, unattended, while attending to another more demanding task,” adds Kimotsuiki.
“The typical users of this machine are the digital print shops, which are looking for cost-effective value addition options. So, for embossing a smaller quantity job, you do not need to invest in dies,” says Kimotsuiki.
Putting its inkjet expertise to use, Duplo has developed DDC-810 spot coating kit targeting the digital print shops, where space is a constraint. With a footprint of 3.5x1.4m, the machine can fit in comfortably even in a boutique print shop.
Kimotsuiki says, “It is a single-colour, single-pass inkjet printer with 600dpi head arrays. It can produce variable-height effects of 20-80micron thicknesses in the same pass. Therefore, the printer can use a combination of heavy solids and textured detail, including smooth curves and beautiful fine lines, down to five point fonts, ranging from 20 to 80 microns in thickness, in a single pass.”
The artwork files can be PDF or TIFF formats, where the coating has been set up as a separate masking layer over the colour image and then extracted as a separate monochrome file. There are four thickness options, with texturing controlled by grayscale height mapping in the artwork.
“The air suction feed and double-feed detector are based on Duplo’s existing AMS technology,” adds Kimotsuiki.
The coating fluid is supplied in three-litre vacuum sealed bags with easy loading. According to Kimotsuiki, the three litres can print over 3,500 sheets with 40micron thickness and 15% coverage.
It is compatible with pre-printed media produced on HP Indigo (ElectroInk), offset printing or anything laminated with corona-treated OPP film.
The DDC-810 can run 36 A4 sheets per minute. Duplo says that, for example, it could run a 500 A4-sheet job on 250gsm media in less than 15 minutes with unattended operation. As the UV coating cures instantly the sheets are ready for further finishing operations right away. Kimotsuiki points out that the machine size is similar to cutter-creaser DC-646.
The USP of DDC-810 is its registration system. The machine is equipped with twin cameras that capture the register marks on both edges of the sheet so that precise registration is guaranteed with compensation for those known attributes of stretch shrink and skew. All this happens on the fly. “Two cameras read the registration marks in real time. This means that any XY image shift, image stretch, skew or twist distortion is automatically adjusted for as the sheet is being fed under the spot UV inkjet head,” adds Kimotsuiki.
The built-in controller and software are Windows based. The GUI allows other Windows-compatible software such as Acrobat and image editing programs to be run on the operator console. The software can also be installed in the pre-press department to use the integral job preparation tools.
Conclusion
This is a niche segment and there are only a couple of products that offer digital enhancements – Scodix and MGI Jetvarnish. However, both these device ranges are high-end in terms of specifications and perhaps price points than Duplo w(Duplo DDC-810’s price range is yet to be disclosed). Plus Scodix and Jetvarnish models offer optional digital foiling module, which lacks in Duplo DDC-810.
For the quality that it promises and the footprint, the compact DDC-810 is an apt machine for commercial digital printers looking to add cost-effective value additions to their products by deploying embossing and UV effects. The price range is yet to be disclosed, which will be a deciding factor.
SPECIFICATIONS
Maximum sheet size: 364x740 mm
Resolution: 600x600dpi
Image height: 20-80 microns
Substrate weight range: 157–450gsm (paper)
Maximum speed: 1,080sph (SRA3/B3)
Footprint: 3.5x1.4m
Contact: TechNova Imaging Systems, Ajay Nagar, +91 98336 85520 ajay.nagar@technovaindia.com
THE ALTERNATIVES
MGI JetVarnish 3DS:
This is the smallest of the JetVarnish range, but with the usual MGI long sheet facility and a 300mm feeder/stacker capacity. The iFoil spot metal foiling unit is optional, as is variable data imaging.
Maximum sheet size: 364x1,020mm
Resolution: 1,200dpi
Image height: 30-100microns
Substrate weight range: 135-450gsm
Maximum speed: 1,624sph at 30micron height
Footprint: 5.5x1m
Contact: Konica Minolta Business Solutions India, Manish Gupta, +91 9654099413 Manish.Gupta@konicaminolta.com
Scodix S75:
Currently the entry level model in the Scodix range. It can handle larger and thicker sheets and has a greater maximum print thickness than Duplo.
Maximum sheet size: 530x750mm
Resolution: 2,540x360dpi
Image height up to: 250microns
Substrate weight range: 135–675gsm
Substrate max thickness: 700microns
Maximum speed: 1,200sph
Footprint: 4.5x1.9m
Contact: Monotech, Ajeet Pareek, +91 971 222 4430 ajeet@monotech.in