A cut above: Challenge Titan digital finishing units now available through CPI Group in New Zealand.
CPI Group has launched two new products to digital printers, the Challenge Titan and Spartan guillotines. The company has just announced exclusive distributor rights for New Zealand for the sizes from 38cm to 67cm, which are aimed squarely at the digital market.
This addition will undoubtedly assist CPI to offer a total finishing package for digital printers, and enable it to build on its existing success with the Morgana creasing and folding machines in this market segment.
The Challenge Machinery company is based in the USA. In finalising the distributorship with CPI, president and CEO Larry Ritsema said Challenge has been building guillotines for over 135 years, which makes it one of the longest established guillotine manufacturers in the world.
“The company is justifiably proud of its history, and the strength and reliability of its equipment,” CPI Group’s Kelvin Kerney says.
The Titan 200 is the key model that CPI will be offering, “and many thousands have been sold to the digital print industry worldwide. Over one thousand have been installed in FedEx Kinko’s and OfficeMax stores in the USA alone. So while the Challenge brand is a relative newcomer here, it comes with the highest credentials from overseas,” he adds.
Accuracy and quality of finishing are increasingly important today, and the extra accuracy down to 0.01mm on the Titan will be warmly welcomed, Kerney says.
“Another nice touch is the electronic clamp adjustment, which enables the operator to change the pressure setting with a stroke of the finger on the touch screen. This overcomes the need to bend down to rotate a hand wheel each time the clamp pressure needs to be varied for different stocks.”
Operators are protected by light barriers with self-checking beams, to ensure the highest standard of safety. A dedicated push-out key moves stock forward, allowing the operator to turn or remove jobs without placing hands in the clamp or knife area. The Titan has CE certification and UL (USA) approval.
These mid-sized guillotines are hydraulically powered, and Challenge claims it has by far the most experience in this area after building them this way for over 50 years, compared to other manufacturers which have only recently converted.
