Personalized Invitations & Stationery, Digital Duplicator Printing

The duplicator was introduced in 1980. It combines four functions, such as that of a digital scanner, computer connectivity, digital master making and high-speed duplication. Duplicators are standard equipment available at low cost and used by non-profit institutions such as churches and schools, who have a need for low cost copies or prints, with high volumes and a machine that has a user-friendly system.

A digital duplicator is a copier that works on the principles of mimeographic technology, combined with modern electronics to produce copies onto paper envelops and even light cards. Mimeographic technology suggests the application of a stencil to produce copies or prints.

The process unfolds as an integral scanner reads the original image. The digital duplicator then creates perforations in the thin, resin-coated master or stencil. The copy stock to be printed upon is placed in the feed tray of the digital duplicator. As the cylinder rotates, a pressure roller presses paper against this cylinder. Ink is then forced through the newly cut openings of the master, onto the paper, envelope or light card, as a copy or print. Development in print and copying technology has brought about a development in the new high-speed digital duplicators.

A digital duplicator boasts of a preventive maintenance cycle of 300,000 copies. Digital duplicators do not use a photoreceptive drum like conventional photocopiers. Digital duplicators do not use a heated fuser unit to produce copies or prints either. These elements add to the greater consistency of digital duplicators, as compared to the conventional photocopiers and to the low management cost of a digital duplicator. There are also benefits in using a digital duplicator to save power, since they do not have a heated fuser unit. Thus, Digital duplicators can function longer between maintenance calls because there is no photoreceptive drum or fuser unit in a digital duplicator that needs replacing.

Innumerable technological enhancements have enabled the digital duplicators to print at speeds of up to 135 pages per minute, with 600dpi resolution. Digital duplicators are perfectly suited for print shops or corporate graphics departments, where digital duplicators can be used alongside conventional print-room photocopiers.

Digital duplicators however, are also capable of printing at speeds of up to 135 A4 pages per minute and an impressive 120 A3 pages per minute. This increase in speed in digital duplicators is simply because they use an ink process that reprints each sheet of paper on contact. The ink used in digital duplicators is quick-drying and will be virtually touch-dry on contact, depending on the print resolution of between 300 dpi to 600 dpi. The copy quality compares favorably with conventional copying.

Digital Duplicators are environmentally friendly, in comparison to the photocopiers. They do not emit ozone, unlike photocopiers. As digital duplicators do not use toner and do not use cooling fans since there is no fuser unit present, they do not circulate toner dust when the filter is congested. All digital duplicators have an inbuilt ‘energy save’ function that reduces as much as 85% negligible power used, when in duplicator is kept in the standby mode.

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