Duplo Integrated Folding System (IFS) Product Review

The Duplo IFS is a knife folding system for use inline with the Duplo DC 614, Duplo DC 645 and Duplo DC 445. When used inline with the Duplo DC 445 it can produce a creased and folded piece in one pass. When used with the Duplo DC 615 or Duplo DC 645 it can produce a slit, cut, creased and folded piece in one pass. This alone is an impressive feat! We found the system to be relatively easy to setup given all that we are trying to achieve in one pass. With the top suction feeders on the Duplo 445/615/645 we loved being able to load our jobs, press the start button and carry on with other work. The speed will not knock your socks off but being able to finish the work in the background certainly offers its advantages. The stacker is different that you would see traditionally, the vertical stacker lets us stack the product so that we can stack much more product than a normal belted stacker before.

 

PRO’s

  1. Top suction feed - as we mention the top feeder with these systems means we can load, press start and the job will finish itself
  2. Knife fold - the knife fold here produces a good flat fold, with no marking on the digital jobs we ran.
  3. Quiet, 110v Power supply - Other units on the market for knife folding use a 220v power supply because they are feeding from the bottom of the pile and need a large pump to float the paper. The Duplo top feeding system on the 645/615/445 means no need for a large pump and as such it is quite a bit quieter than the competition as well.

 

CON’s

  1. Speed - we understand that in a world of short runs speed is not always the most important factor but the IFS is, simply put, slow.The rated speed is 1,500 per hour but we did not acheive that in our testing using a letter size sheet and half fold we were closer 1,250/hr
  2. Stacker - we like the idea of a vertical stacker but it was not seamless in our testing.
  3. Setup screen - we found the setup screen to be small, not to say difficult to use but we would like it to contain more information.

 

In summary we feel the IFS system works very well within certain applications, if you are producing a regular job of 12 x 18 that needs to be slit/cut/ creased down to 11 x 17 then folded into a letter fold the Duplo 645 with IFS or Duplo 615 with IFS could be a great fit. Also if you are in a smaller store front facility or in-plant facility where speed was not as necessary and noise, space and power were an issue the Duplo DC 445 with IFS would fit in very well. The IFS system inline with the 645/615 or 445 is not best suited for high volume facilities where large volumes of work need to be finished in a short time line. Inall if you have the right application the Duplo Integrated Folding System offers a reliable compact easy to use solution.