What’s good enough for the US intelligence services is also good enough for a whole host of organisations, both big and small, around the world. There have been more than 1,000 installations worldwide of the DigiFold since it was launched at Ipex in 2002.
The development of the machine had its roots at Drupa 2000, when Morgana launched the AutoCreaser. It provided a solution to a major inherent problem that digital printers faced – the tendency of the printed product to crack when folded. The AutoCreaser, as its name suggests, put a crease in digitally printed sheets to prevent them cracking.
Morgana’s DigiFold went a vital step further by combining the functions of creasing and folding in a single unit and the quality of the finish won it many admirers.
Unique design
The mobile machine was equally effective with digital substrates as it was with heavy, cross grained litho printed stocks. It incorporated a patented blade and matrix creasing mechanism that Morgana originally developed for the AutoCreaser. This was combined with a patented and entirely new method of folding – the “flying knife”.
Instead of using buckle plates or conventional folding knives, the machine had an electronically controlled “flying” knife contoured around extra large diameter rollers that moved at the same speed as the material passing through
the machine.
“Rather than the solid deflector used in most folders, the DigiFold used another patented device in the form of a dynamic sheet deflector that only comes in contact with the leading edge of the sheet,” says Steve Enright, marketing manager at Morgana Systems.
This allowed single or multiple folds to be performed without the risk of scratching or marking the substrate. As a sheet moves through the machine towards the fold rollers, the first flying knife moves out of the sheet’s travel path, minimising contact with the sheet. A second flying knife acts as a “dynamic sheet deflector”. The DigiFold’s deflectors move with the sheet, tipping the fold position into the rollers and moving out of the travel path.
Automation features
For standard configurations, the DigiFold worked in a “set to fold” mode. Once the required fold and sheet lengths were selected, a program took over that would automatically set the creasing and folding position. “For extra creases or difficult configurations, a ‘set to position’ operating method was used in which the operator dialled in the creasing and folding positions,” explains Enright.
Morgana hasn’t stopped developing the machine. At drupa 2008, a new version was unveiled, the DigiFold 5000P. Offering 5,000 creases and folds per hour on A4 stock, the latest model is more than three times faster than the original. It also takes a larger sheet size and provides perforating as a standard feature, as well having an increased capacity feeder.
SPECIFICATIONS
Max speed: 1,500sph (A4)
Max sheet size: 630 x 330mm
Max paper weight: 350gsm+
Max number of creases per sheet: 9
Max number of folds per sheet: 2
Max number of stored programmes: 6
Min repeat crease distance: 4mm
Footprint: Length 1,830mm; Width 555mm
Weight: 180kg
CPI is the distributor for Morgana products in Australia and New Zealand.
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