The Coalville-headquartered company said the Velo Blade, which is commercially available with immediate effect, enables printers to extend the services they offer, create unique and intricate products, and remove the need for outsourcing.

The automated machine combines cutting, creasing and perforating in a single pass with auto-feed, conveyor belt and a collection tray, allowing for completely unattended production.

Best suited to medium to large-sized digital print firms according to Vivid, the device can handle up to 100mm of stock up to 1.5mm thick or 1,200gsm.

Gantry mounted vacuum clamps operate alongside air separation jets, feeding the stock into production, and from here an industrial CCD registration camera picks out registration marks to align the cutting head.

The tungsten steel blade then carries out the cutting process while the vacuum-grip conveyor belt holds stock securely in place. Once all cutting, creasing and perforating is complete, the stock is automatically stacked in the collection tray.

The device can handle a variety of stocks and sizes ranging from 210x297mm to 600x400mm. It can cut substrates including paper, plastic board, PVC board, PU, cardboard, rubber sheet or marking film at up to 1,000mm/sec, with SRA3 taking between 15 to 45 seconds per sheet depending on the complexity of the cut or crease.

Vivid sales director Richard Marlow said: “Traditionally, the cost of bringing quality cutting in-house hasn’t been a feasible option for most print shops. Which led us to launch the Velo Blade.

“Collaborating with our customers to understand what would make their businesses better and lives easier, it became clear that less outsourcing and expanding their customer base was the way to go.

“Velo Blade opens up completely new markets in packaging and point-of-sale, giving print suppliers the platform they need to further their offering and grow the business.”

Available direct from Vivid as well as its partners, the Velo Blade was shown in public for the first time at The Print Show on Tuesday (17 September). Vivid said it sold two of the machines on the first day of the Birmingham NEC event, which concludes today (19 September).

Pricing for the device was undisclosed, but described as “very competitive”.