Touchline CF375 Creasing & Folding Machine

[Digimc]

Hi, has anyone got one of these on their shop floor? And can you recommend it. All our work is digital and we need a better score and fold solution than what we have currently
any info would be much appreciated.

 

[Bobbreda]

Hi Digimc, we're in the same situation.
At my best knowledge, the're 3 all in 1 machines suited for digital stuff. The mentioned multigraf CF375 / morgana digifold 385 / horizon CRF-362.
Multigraf and morgana are in the same price range at +-€25K for new machines, the horizon is at €30k.

Till so far I've seen the;
Horizon in action at the dealer with my own printed goods on various stocks It did't perfom good enough till our wishes ie. it had still cracks on the spine.
Morgana on a trade show a time ago, however they we're producing exemples from offset printed stocks.

Curious about your findings.

 

[Stickman42]

We have a CF375. We are also all digital. We don't use it very often, but when we do, it does a nice job creasing and folding. Cracking is rarely present. It is an earlier version, and from what I've seen in newer literature, the enhancements made address some of its shortcomings. I believe they added a cross-process direction perf option.

Pros: ease of setup, repeatability, accuracy
Cons: feeder is sometimes finicky/not beefy enough, operator panel a little difficult to navigate

 

[Digimc]

Thank you both for taking the time to reply, I have been offered a showroom demo model, with very little use, but I think it is 3+ years old. I might see if I can have the machine on trial. I will keep you posted and thanks again for your input.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

I've been told by multiple parties that the Duplo CF375 is THE machine to purchase over current model Morgana's etc.

 

[PrintingFools]

Hello Digim,

We have 4 brands of score machines
and 3 brands of folding machines on site .
In addition , I have met with many providers for demos.

This is what I can tell you
If you want a score & fold solution in one machine,
this will lower your options.
It is easier, but might tie up your machine longer.
You could be folding on another machine,
while scoring a 2nd job on your first machine.

The Brand DUPLO:
The VERY best one for cracking that I have seen is the Duplo.
They do offer score an fold in one solution.
We own one and I can tell you there is ZERO cracking.
Even printing with the wrong grain direction.
As well as Zero cracks on upto 12 PT
with only "almost undetectable" micro cracks on 14pt.
But, the draw back is that it is slow as all heck!
So, you get a choice amazing quality or speed. But not both.

Next is the Brand ROLLEM,
This thing is fast.
So fast it will give your eyeballs friction burns from trying to watch it spit out the sheets.
( that was an attempt at a joke)
It can score and perf faster than you can load the machine.
The PERF quality is beyond excellent and works well for digital.
The SCORE for digital is a “NO”
and I don’t think the offer a folding solution

We we also have Braum and DynaFold
But, they not recommended for digital.

The Brand MORGANA, The only one that can beat the Duple might be the, Morgana
It is much much faster. It will crease and fold.
Ricoh USA , reps this product.
From what I have seen it looks good.
But I was not able to demo my own stock and own graphics.

Hope this offers you some direction.

 

[Stickman42]

The Brand DUPLO (CF375):
The VERY best one for cracking that I have seen is the Duplo.
They do offer score an fold in one solution.
We own one and I can tell you there is ZERO cracking.
Even printing with the wrong grain direction.
As well as Zero cracks on upto 12 PT
with only "almost undetectable" micro cracks on 14pt.
But, the draw back is that it is slow as all heck!
So, you get a choice amazing quality or speed. But not both.

I agree with everything above. Regarding speed, it varies depending on the length of sheet you run through.

 

[Digimc]

Hi, many thanks for the info. Can I ask a question is the Duplo 375 a re badged Multigraf touchline cf375 as they look identical? Speed is not that big an issue for us as typical runs would be 1000 units or less quality is my main concern and a machine that you can just load and walk away from

 

[rcreveli]

The Touchline is a great machine. It's much quieter than the Morgana I ran at my last job and it will handle a broader range of stocks. We regularly run 60# & 70# offsets on the machine. It gets grumpy when running the lightweight opaques but, for short runs it's still faster than setting up the floor folder. Ours is used almost daily, we are also a digital only shop.

 

[Stickman42]

is the Duplo 375 a re badged Multigraf touchline cf375 as they look identical?

Yes - AFAIK, Duplo doesn't even put their name on it. They act as distributor in the US.

 

[grafix]

We purchased a Morgana Digifold 5000P back in October 2009. It was a problem from the start. Folds would drift and per Morgana, this is caused by solenoids getting too hot. Our unit has a retrofit circuit to control that but still, poor performance. At first they said they would refurbish it at the New York facility. After I had quotes on shipping and packing I called back to have them make good on their promise. The claim at this point was "why would we have said that?" They refused to refurbish it because in their words, the same problems would return. They admitted it was a bad design and after some period of time that model was pulled and replaced with another model. This and the replacement model use bottom feed technology. Why would they choose this when paper weight will caused sheets not to feed or your will have double feeds. Unclogging the feed path can be a real pain. Things have gotten worse over time. The most recently job involved 100# book weight (.0057) 148 gsm paper. The tri-fold run was 1,500. I had to run double that amount resulting in costing more clicks, just to have acceptable folds. In additional all the time to sort each and every piece. This wandered all over the place. Would I even consider another Morgan branded product? Not unless I love headaches.

 

[grafix]

Hello Digim,

We have 4 brands of score machines
and 3 brands of folding machines on site .
In addition , I have met with many providers for demos.

This is what I can tell you
If you want a score & fold solution in one machine,
this will lower your options.
It is easier, but might tie up your machine longer.
You could be folding on another machine,
while scoring a 2nd job on your first machine.

The Brand DUPLO:
The VERY best one for cracking that I have seen is the Duplo.
They do offer score an fold in one solution.
We own one and I can tell you there is ZERO cracking.
Even printing with the wrong grain direction.
As well as Zero cracks on upto 12 PT
with only "almost undetectable" micro cracks on 14pt.
But, the draw back is that it is slow as all heck!
So, you get a choice amazing quality or speed. But not both.

Next is the Brand ROLLEM,
This thing is fast.
So fast it will give your eyeballs friction burns from trying to watch it spit out the sheets.
( that was an attempt at a joke)
It can score and perf faster than you can load the machine.
The PERF quality is beyond excellent and works well for digital.
The SCORE for digital is a “NO”
and I don’t think the offer a folding solution

We we also have Braum and DynaFold
But, they not recommended for digital.

The Brand MORGANA, The only one that can beat the Duple might be the, Morgana
It is much much faster. It will crease and fold.
Ricoh USA , reps this product.
From what I have seen it looks good.
But I was not able to demo my own stock and own graphics.

Hope this offers you some direction.

I don't know if are still looking, but I would stay away from Morgan. I have a Digifold 5000P. It is a piece of junk. They had mentioned it was a bad model and was replaced by another. They would gladly selll me their new model at the cost cost. Asked if the problems were gone n the new model and they answered some of them. At one point they offered to fix it free. I would need to send it to NY. After I received costs on crating and shipping, they were called to advise I was ready to ship. The answer was alarming. "Why would we fix it when after a couple months it would be have the same problems". Save yourself the grief!

 

[grafix]

The Touchline is a great machine. It's much quieter than the Morgana I ran at my last job and it will handle a broader range of stocks. We regularly run 60# & 70# offsets on the machine. It gets grumpy when running the lightweight opaques but, for short runs it's still faster than setting up the floor folder. Ours is used almost daily, we are also a digital only shop.

Would appreciate a review on the performance. A an example, are the folds on 60# offset accurate or does it wander? Is there a speed control, slowing it down may result in a more accurate fold?

I am testing a Horizon CRF-362. Super accurate folds but on light weight stock I need to slow it down to #2 (out of 5 speeds) or else the folds (not crease) does way off.

 

[rcreveli]

Would appreciate a review on the performance. A an example, are the folds on 60# offset accurate or does it wander? Is there a speed control, slowing it down may result in a more accurate fold?

I am testing a Horizon CRF-362. Super accurate folds but on light weight stock I need to slow it down to #2 (out of 5 speeds) or else the folds (not crease) does way off.

We haven't experienced issues with fold accuracy on 60#. If we're folding something that thin it's usually an offset stock with nothing on the spine and doesn't need a score. It's easy to slow down & speed up the machine from the control panel. 90-95% of the issues we have with folds drifting or random doubles is fixed by blowing out the sensors with an air compressor.