Flexpress has upgraded its creasing and folding capability with the installation of a Morgana DigiFold Pro XL, replacing two older DigiFold units.

The purchase comes as part of a strategy at the Leicester-based trade printer to do more work without increasing staff count, while also preparing for the Christmas surge in greetings cards. While noting that the new model is more versatile, managing director Steve Wenlock said that increased running speed was the main factor in his decision:

‘Despite having two machines, creasing/folding was often still tying up staff for too long, so it made sense for us to put in a faster machine. We had a couple of older Morgana machines which we were able to part-exchange, and now we can crease and fold on one machine with just one member of staff the same volume of work [that] used to take two machines and two staff members,’ he explained.

‘We do also have a competitor’s product, but each machine has its own advantages and disadvantages, so having both options keeps all bases covered. We’ve had an association with Morgana for many years and their kit seems to always ‘do what it says on the tin’, and as they’ve always looked after us, we felt upgrading the Morgana DigiFold machines to the Pro XL made perfect sense,’ he added.

In addition to the greeting card work, the machine will also be used for four-page and six-page brochures. It will also be used to pre-crease thicker saddle-stitched booklet covers.

The DigiFold Pro XL is a heavy-duty automatic creasing and folding system is designed to complement mid-to-high volume digital and offset production presses. It features an open design and a suction feeder that handles stock sizes from 210 to 1300mm in length as standard, which it folds up to 6000 A4 per hour, or in ‘crease only’ mode at 7500 per hour, with a maximum loading capacity of 200mm. Full cross-perforation is also available, along with the ability to add up to five inline perforation/scoring wheels. The machine is able to create up to 30 creases per sheet.

The ‘do more with less’ strategy appears to be working for Flexpress, as Mr Wenlock reports that September 2021 was the company’s best ever month, with nine fewer staff than in its previous best month. Flexpress has HP Indigo, Ricoh and (Canon) Océ digital presses.