Canon announces next generation of in line booklet makers for its toner presses

Print Solutions

Canon has announced the availability of the BLM435e and BLM450e, the next generation of Plockmatic booklet making solutions for its imagePress V-series and varioPrint 140 Quartz series digital toner presses. Replacing the popular BLM35 and BLM50 series, the new models deliver enhancements in automation, connectivity and application range, including the ability to produce A4 landscape format booklets.

Designed for low to mid volume digital production environments with an average monthly volume of around 30 thousand booklets, the BLM435e and BLM450e support sheet sizes up to 660 mm in length, enabling the production of A4 landscape format booklets alongside standard portrait formats.

Plockmatic's signature square fold finish gives booklets the professional appearance of a perfect bound book. The BLM450e can staple and fold up to 50 sheets of 80 g/m2 paper, creating booklets of up to 200 pages, while the BLM435e handles up to 35 sheets for 140 page booklets. Both models also support corner and edge stapling for producing meeting notes, reference documents and presentation handouts while, for booklet production, the set positioning mechanism allows the operator to easily adjust the staple and fold position on the fly.

A simple touchscreen interface enables easy job set up and adjustment, while new adjustable skew compensation helps operators achieve precision folding results. Optional modules include the FM400e finishing module for face trimming and square folding, and the RCT (Rotate Crease Trim) module for full bleed trimming and creasing of smaller sheet sizes.

The BLM435e and BLM450e’s new DFD+ interface creates tighter integration between Canon production presses – via either the high capacity stacker or staple/booklet finisher and bridge – and the new bookletmakers. The enhanced connectivity enables automatic paper size detection, allowing the bookletmaker to receive paper information directly from the print engine and adjust settings automatically. As a result, operators can now print different booklet jobs in varying sizes without manual intervention, whereas switching formats, eg from an A4 to an A3 booklet, previously required the operator to input settings manually into the BLM user interface.

The DFD+ interface also introduces a dynamic set gap feature, enabling the bookletmaker to communicate with the press the moment an existing set has been processed, and allowing the next set to begin printing immediately. This reduces downtime between jobs and increases hourly productivity. Additional improvements include enhanced error handling and more sophisticated job queue functionality for seamless processing of multiple queued jobs with varying sizes and sheet counts.

The BLM435e and BLM450e are compatible with the imagePress V1350, V1000 and V900 Series of colour production systems, as well as the varioPrint 140 Quartz series of monochrome presses. They join the wider range of high performance third party finishing devices offered by Canon, enabling print companies to create tailored, highly automated end to end production workflows.