All in one: Horizon SmartSlitter
The Horizon SmartSlitter is an all-in-one smart sheet processing system that can slit, gutter cut, edge trim, cross-cut, perforate, and crease all in one pass.
Perforation and creasing can be performed in both horizontal and vertical directions in the same pass. Skip perforation feature can produce T- and L-perfs ideal for coupons, tickets and business reply cards.
The system can deliver multiple up greeting cards with or without creasing, table tents, invitations, and more with both matrix and rotary creasing. For accordion fold applications or perfect bound books, up and down creasing can also be performed in one pass. Standard size business cards can be printed 21-up on a sheet and processed to a receding stacker for easy handling. Print mark registration adjusts for digital print image shift from sheet to sheet. The colour touch screen features a simple user interface for easy operation including job set-up via barcode. There are a number of features that Horizon stresses, including the ability to run partial perforations both across and along the sheet to create tear out coupons for example. It can take a sheet to 670mm in length (370mm across), so coping with the increasing number of 6pp digital presses installed.
The sheet is fed on to a registration table and registered using conventional side and front lays. A camera reads a barcode to pull down information about the settings for that sheet. It can be a stand 1D, 2D or data matrix code. As the sheet moves forwards, an image shift is accounted for, moving both X and Y axis if necessary. It also registers to the previous action, a crease to the previous crease for example.
Access to the slitting, creasing and perforating models is through panels on the side of the machine. The cassettes slide out and back in rather than being lifted in and out of the machine. It is possible to replace blades rather than replacing the cassette itself.
There are three slitter modules, each with twin blades. This enables the SmartSlitter to remove the gutter between business cards as well as handling full bleed cards for example. Business cards are delivered into a special stacking module. Products are otherwise fed to a conveyor delivery.
There is a touch panel interface to set up jobs with the option of a Smart Connect module to both accept JDF jobs and deliver JMF data back to the workflow. The operator can store and retrieve settings for easy setup and job rerun. It can also accept a PDF file and use this to overlay the position of creases, cuts and folds and so on.
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