The two new machines, which are listed at around €150,000 (£132,000) for the Mini Collation system and €100,000 for the Esper, were given their soft launch in the early part of this year and installed in a number of beta sites across Europe, although none in the UK. They were given their official launch at last week’s Post-Expo 2017 trade show in Geneva, Switzerland and became commercially available immediately afterwards.

The Mini Collation system, which was shown as a prototype at Drupa, is Duplo’s first machine to be twinned with its E-Tandem software, which will be rolled out in November and connects the machine with the cloud, allowing for the production of job reports, job file transfers and diagnostics. 

“We’ve had many occasions where envelopes have arrived, glued together, which causes all sorts of problems,” said Neale Horstead, who heads up the Direct Marketing division.

“Now you have a way of distinguishing the different documents that are run in each particular set and whether certain documents cause more problems than others.” 

Running at 9,000 sets per hour, both machines handle a range of document formats, while the Mini Collation system extends the inline processes of the Esper by incorporating both a 'Load-on-the-run' facility and a 'Cascade' function that can be programmed to handle larger volumes of small runs of inserts, as well as thicker folded documents. A stacker unit can be programmed to deliver batches from five to 50, with no pause in production. 

“With the Mini System you get control of production because the stacker is split into two,” said Horstead.

"It basically allows the collator to keep feeding. A lot of our customers have developed their own range of conveyor systems over the years, so we realised this was something required of the marketplace, something more productive than the stacker/elevator.”

The Esper is an upgrade on the 2014-launched 230V Collator, with two more 'recollation' bins and the ability to handle thicker documents in 12 large trays, doubling the loading capacity into each bin. It has a Just Timing function to ensure pick-up of awkward stocks and sensors to detect a paper jam or empty bin, along with a paper separator slide on each bin to enable changeover from thin to thick documents.

Horstead said: “There is a tendency now towards thicker documents. All customers are trying to pack more into their promotions, this is a trend and therefore the machines need to be able to handle that many thicker documents than before.”

Launched in 2011 by Horstead, Duplo’s three-staff Direct Marketing division, which still utilises Duplo's main sales channel, was set up in response to the demands of the marketplace. It mainly targets its machines at newspaper publishers, distributors and fulfilment companies, although Horstead said there is a small amount of overlap with Duplo’s commercial print customers. 

Surrey-headquartered Duplo, which recently appointed a new managing director, has launched a raft of new machines this year, including the DuSense DDC-810 Sensory Coater, upgraded DB-290 perfect binder and DC-746 multi finisher with Integrated Folding System.