Duplo DC 545 or similar?

[AP90]

Hey guys, im in need of a machine to handle creasing/scoring. We are going to be doing perfect binding jobs, and I need to be able to score the covers. Both for the spine and hinge folds. Would an older machine like the Duplo 545 work for this? We don't have a need for much scoring as it is, but hopefully the demand increases after we get into the perfect binding and we can upgrade to newer equipment. Ive looked at graphic whizard and similar. Most of those that are on the low end of the price range are rotary scoring. We are all digital so would rotary scoring from one of those work, or would impact be the best? Everything I have learned so far, Duplo is the best. But I didn't know if a rotary scoring machine could achieve the same results as impact scoring.

If you have any suggestions id love to hear them. Runs are probably going to be 200-800 so speed isn't a huge factor. Especially in the beginning as we expect the jobs to be few and far between.

 

[jwheeler]

You definitely need creasing (impact), not scoring (rotary) to prevent cracking. Duplo's are great units. When I was in equipment sales, I sold lots of them and never had a complaint. I also personally used a Duplo 616Pro for about 5 years to cut down all of our in-house marketing materials and business cards - it was a great unit, but slow. At the shop I work at now, we have an MBM Aerocut Prime Complete and I think it's just as good as a Duplo. All metal construction, and fast! There are pros and con's to each that I can list for those interested. Graphic Whizard does make a slitter/cutter/creaser unit similar to the Duplo's and Aerocuts, though I don't have any experience with it.

To your specific question, a 545 would work, but those are getting to be quite old. That was replaced by the DC-646 maybe 7-8 years ago. If you just need creasing, Duplo offers the DC-446 which is much more affordable than the 646 and much faster (60ppm) vs the 545/646 are 30ppm. Make sure to get the optional air-knife.

 

[Shawnd]

I have the GW 335 SCC and it does a good job a creasing, it will put the crease right where you want it as long as you keep the rollers clean and the paper is not thin. It is a load and go machine with the vacuum and air assisted feeder. I just got microperfs for it last month, still playing with that but its a multi-tool kind of machine.

 

[Stickman42]

What perfect binder do you have? A lot of them rotary score off the cover feeder.

I've got a Duplo CF375 creaser/folder. I love the machine - the quality, feed and repeatability are great. However, there is a MINIMUM distance of 1.1" between multiple creases on the same sheet. If you're looking to do the all the creases (spine and hinges) in one pass, this is one machine spec you should consider.

 

[AP90]

What perfect binder do you have? A lot of them rotary score off the cover feeder.

I've got a Duplo CF375 creaser/folder. I love the machine - the quality, feed and repeatability are great. However, there is a MINIMUM distance of 1.1" between multiple creases on the same sheet. If you're looking to do the all the creases (spine and hinges) in one pass, this is one machine spec you should consider.

We have the Sterling Digibinder. Its never actually had a problem with cracking when the spines are folded, we just have more requesting the hinge fold as well. Im now leaning more towards a Graphic Whizard Creasemaster plus. They seem reasonably priced and seem to do a good job from the little I've been able to find on them. We have a weekly perf job we outsourcing the perforating to and then run it pre perf'd through the printer. We probably have $10 in waste each job and the paper basically doubles in price. So we figured if we could find an option that will perf and score thats reasonable then it will offset the cost of this job and help with others. The Creasemaster seems like it will fit the requirements but only if its reliable.

 

[RonHuang]

For the book cover job, I dont think you need to buy a Slit Cut Creaser, Auto creaser is enough, becasue anyway , you have to do the 3 side trim. Graphic whizard PT335A Plus Multi or PT335B Multi is a right solution for you. It is faster than Duplo and high capacity than Morgana, if you want an more entry level product, there are also manual feeding machine in GW PT line. All the GW PT line creaser has a bookcover mode which make the book spine job more friendly . And if you are going to do sth in the book industry, you can also study the PROGRESSIVE(TM) funcion build-in the software system which is of patent.

 

[Lcegraphics]

The Duplo 545 series was the first SCC to be introduced by Duplo. It was well made and worked well. It processed up to 10PT But, had issues with thicker or harder stocks. The replacement 645 corrected that.
www.LCEgraphics.com Phone: 1-800-634-2176 International 1-352-799-8393