Ferag focuses on fast fold: pre-Ifra press conference

Journalists went to Zurich from far and wide to see Ferag unveil a new system that promises to move the quarterfold from the pressroom to the mailroom. Print21 editor, Simon Enticknap, was there too.

The new StreamFold system was unveiled at a pre-Ifra press conference held at the company headquarters in Hinwil, Switzerland, and attended by members of the trade press from around the world.

The idea behind the StreamFold is to provide a flexible alternative to the traditional quarterfold performed on the press. While many recent newspaper installations include a quarterfold on at least one folder unit, there are equally many presses which do not include a quarterfold option. The addition of a quarterfold on newspaper presses opens up the possibility of producing a wider range of commercial coldset supplements and inserts.

The StreamFold (pictured) from Ferag is designed to overcome the limitations and expense of having a press-based quarterfold by creating a modular system that can be integrated with any Ferag mailroom system or used off-line to handle third party commercial products. Used inline it can be integrated via Ferag UTR conveyors systems or, off-line, fed via a JetFeeder hopper.

After folding, products can be fed to a JobStack stacker for bundling or wound onto a MultiDisc for subsequent inserting.

Ferag claims a top speed of 60,000 copies per hour for the StreamFold (and ran it briefly at top speed during the press demo). Maximum thickness of the unfolded product is 100 pages and, to cope with the difficulties of folding thick paper products, Ferag has devised its own unique W fold, a type of ‘notched’ fold that is designed to eliminate unsightly creasing and crimping.

At the same press event, Ferag also introduced the latest version of its PolyStream polybagging line with a demonstration of a line due to be installed with the Prinovis Group in Liverpool, UK. The Prinovis plant runs four gravure presses and currently handles about 40 million polybags per month. This particular PolyStream line is capable of collecting up to 13 different products for sealing in a polybag including items such as magazine supplements, catalogues and CDs.

At Hinwil, Ferag ran the PolyStream line at 30,000 copies per hour, collating six different products into polybags before feeding a MultiStack stacker and SmartStrap strapping unit.

The final demonstration of the press event included two EasySert inserting systems due to be delivered to customers in North Wales and Canada. For a full report, see the next issue of Print21 magazine.