Dynamic cutting of POD Covers - Duplo 618 or something else?

[rcreveli]

Here's our use case.
We need to be able to cut a variety of covers to the bleed box from a 13x19 sheet. for example
3 6x9 with a 1" spine
1 6x9 with 1.125" spine
5 7x10's with a 1" spine
etc...
All of the covers are 1 up at this point in the process. The standard stock is 8pt with between a 1.0 & 1.3 mil laminate.
as you can see getting this off of the flat bed guillotine would be a huge labor savings.
In my dream world I would load a stack of barcoded 13x19 sheets into the feeder and the machine would change between sizes as needed.
Is this something the 618 can do? if not any other ideas?

 

[tngcas]

I believe I tried cutting laminated sheets in our old Aerocut which is similar to the Duplo 618 (this was before we got our duplo) and the lamination got bound up in the slitters. I'm not sure that this would be a good use case for this style of machine. Maybe someone else is using them for that though. The Duplo 618 does have different style slitters which is a single blade instead of a double-channel slitter. The creasing of the lamination did not take at all and both machines use the same style creasing so if you need that I'm not sure if that would work.

 

[Stickman42]

Just so I understand the whole concept, are you perfect binding? If all your covers are different lengths and widths, don't you have many setups on the binder?

 

[rcreveli]

Just so I understand the whole concept, are you perfect binding? If all your covers are different lengths and widths, don't you have many setups on the binder?

We are case binding. The book blocks are glued on the perfect binder. Most of are text blocks a printed on digital webs We don't run a lot of impositions. A 5.5x8.5, 6x9 and 7x10 may all run on the same impo and we accept the white waste in favor of the labor savings. The only adjustment at the PB is for the spine width. We have a 3 knife that reads the barcodes to adjust for final trim size or can be programmed manually.

 

[Pennypicher]

i work on the Duplo's and don't recommend any type of mylar or lamination as it messes with the blades.

 

[a.emerezian]

i work on the Duplo's and don't recommend any type of mylar or lamination as it messes with the blades.

So if I want to get the 618 to cut postcards and business cards that are laminated the results won't be good?

 

[Pennypicher]

The results will probably be good however you will do in my opinion excessive wear and tear on the blades and the knife which it get costly when you need to replace them.

 

[Stickman42]

I have no experience with this machine, but according to the brochure PDF it might be capable of doing what you're looking to do:

"This camera reads the print registration mark or barcode to adjust the cutting, perforating and creasing position according to image position. This camera is also used to read the barcode for automatic job set-up." and "The camera device detects the print registration by reading the barcode or mark printed on the sheet. The position of the slitter, creaser, and cutting position are adjusted according to image shift."

Automatically adjusting the slitters might be what is lacking, which would be for your top and bottom trims.

This is Horizon's machine. I would imagine Duplo may have something similar out there.

 

[rcreveli]

I have no experience with this machine, but according to the brochure PDF it might be capable of doing what you're looking to do:

"This camera reads the print registration mark or barcode to adjust the cutting, perforating and creasing position according to image position. This camera is also used to read the barcode for automatic job set-up." and "The camera device detects the print registration by reading the barcode or mark printed on the sheet. The position of the slitter, creaser, and cutting position are adjusted according to image shift."

Automatically adjusting the slitters might be what is lacking, which would be for your top and bottom trims.

This is Horizon's machine. I would imagine Duplo may have something similar out there.

Thanks,
I reached out to our Standard dealer. Our PB and trimming gear our Standard & that would give us a common UI. We'll see what the price is.