Tool families/Micro-Perforator
Fine, die-quality micro-perforations — up to 72 tpi, nearly invisible — produced inline on your folding machine.
The Micro-perforator is the only rotary device that replicates the flatbed-cylinder micro-perf you would normally outsource — a clean, flat, nearly-invisible perforation at up to 72 teeth per inch, produced inline on your folding machine without the cost or the headache.
Inline micro-perforating of folding-machine work — tear-off sections, vouchers, coupons, reply cards and forms — at a quality previously only achievable on a flatbed cylinder or die.
See it run
Watch the Micro-Perforator at work
The problem
The problem we solve
Conventional folding-machine perf systems are well known for distorting the sheet in three directions — downward as the blade enters, upward as it exits, and horizontally as it pushes the paper away from the counter knife. The result is a jagged, unsightly "torn" look that customers reject, along with paper dust and curl that cause problems for any job that has to run through another process afterwards. And the brittle perforating teeth break off through unavoidable wear.
Why the OEM way fails
Why the standard factory method falls short
Folders are made to fold paper; the perforating accessories supplied with them were only ever produced to aid that process. Try to get flatbed-quality micro-perforating from a standard folding-machine perf and you won't — the blade overlaps the cutting anvil by around 2 mm and punches a series of holes that scatter paper dust and distort the stock. A 12 tpi blade isn't even true micro-perforating (flatbed micro-perf starts at 17 tpi), and simply making finer blades only produces smaller dust while staying just as destructive. The tolerances needed for blades, anvils and collars to work in perfect unison on a folder's shafts are almost impossible to hold, so the components wear and the teeth burr or break.
The Tech-ni-Fold Micro-perforator is the only rotary-action solution that replicates the proven micro-perf results that come off a flatbed cylinder — and, built with technology that adds strength and longevity, it greatly outlasts conventional methods many times over, where ordinary blades quickly burr and break.
How it works
How the Micro-Perforator works
Unlike a conventional perf, the Micro-perforator is designed to kiss-cut the sheet: its narrow-profile blade presses on top of a nylon anvil and cuts only to the bottom of the sheet, not beyond. That minimises the knife area in contact with the stock, giving a cleaner, finer cut and letting the sheet lay perfectly flat — the same flatbed principle, in rotary form. The blade is mounted on a special shock-absorbing cushion, so the kiss-cut stays accurate and precise along the entire length of the sheet.
Two rubber grippers sit either side of the perf wheel to maximise grip on the sheet. They keep it stable, prevent the sheet "tailing" as it exits the fold rollers, and hold it flat — so you get perfect, straight-line micro-perfs every time.
The package includes 17, 25 and 52 tpi blades covering stock from 65 to 350 gsm, with 10, 12, 40 and 72 tpi blades available for some machine makes — so it produces not only fine micro-perforations but clean regular perforations down to 10 tpi. A choice of two nylon cutting anvils greatly minimises blade wear; heavier stocks take the coarser blades, lighter stocks the finer.
It has become an industry standard for micro-perforating to be fine, flat and free of distortion so the perfed sheets run trouble-free through laser printers. The Micro-perforator delivers exactly that: perfect, straight-line micro-perfs that customers love.
Before
AfterWhat you get
Every Micro-Perforator delivers
- Flatbed-quality micro-perf inline — nearly invisible, up to 72 tpi
- Eliminate micro-perf outsourcing and save hours or days in turnaround
- Sheets run trouble-free through laser printers and copiers
- Never break a perf blade again — break-resistant double-bevel blades
- Save thousands on smashed printing-press blankets
- No installation required — simply slide onto the folder's slitter shafts
- Free up your press and die cutter for profitable work
Eliminate micro-perf outsourcing — keep the work in house, save hours and days in turnaround, free up your printing press and die cutter for profitable work, and sell the jobs you used to turn away.
Never break a perf blade again — the break-resistant double-bevel blades cut against soft nylon rather than steel, so they last, and you save thousands of pounds on smashed printing-press blankets.
No installation required — simply slide it onto your folder's slitter shafts, with no special operator skill needed.
Two micro-perforations in a single pass — the twin-blade option produces close-proximity perfs from as little as 5mm apart; simply arrange the nylon spacers to the gap you need.
Sheets that lie flat in the pile — a correctly micro-perforated stack stays flat, whereas the ridge left by a conventional perf builds an oval-shaped stack that makes guillotining and downstream finishing troublesome.
Stop buying pre-perfed paper — produce exactly the perforation you need, when you need it, instead of stocking and paying for pre-perforated sheets.
Proven worldwide
What printers say
“Just a line to say we have done two jobs using the CP Applicator. Delighted! Saved 15 hours work on the Heidelberg cylinder between them, and it frees up a man.”
“We have just completed our second job with the Micro-Perforator and have already recovered the cost we paid for it. Now we can complete work quicker, with superior results than previously, and with a lot more control.”
“We had a difficult job and the outside looked great but the inside was flaking. I ordered a new Tri-Creaser Advance, was so impressed, I ordered two more the next day. They really work great. We delivered that job on time and it saved us from getting a letterpress score and missing a deadline.”
“The Micro-Perf tool from Tech-ni-Fold has been an essential part of our finishing operation for many years now. The tool has replaced all such devices that came before, simply because it produces a much better result, the perf lies flat, meaning there is no bulking up of sheets when we stack them. The blades seem to last forever and the nylon anvils are extremely robust. We get through hundreds of thousands of reply forms and the set up is easy.”
“We had a visit from the Tech-ni-Fold representative and bought our first Micro-Perf unit. The results were excellent and the service faultless. Since then we have bought another perforator unit and their excellent Micro-Perf & Cut Multi-Tool so that we could also do cutting. The quality of the engineering of the tools is a pleasure to behold. British precision engineering at its best. Oh and yes, we did get the mailing contract.”
For digital printers
Built for digital print finishing
The perforation is so fine and flat — with no distortion or paper dust — that the sheets run trouble-free through laser printers and copiers, which is exactly why micro-perf for digital work used to have to be outsourced.
Versions & fitting
Micro-Perforator versions
Instant upgrades: add one special blade to produce kiss-cutting, or add a blade and a cutting boss to produce guillotine-quality slitting — so the Micro-perforator grows into the work you take on.
The Micro-Perforator family also includes a more versatile twin-perforation option — a separate product code that carries two perforating blades at once and applies two micro-perforations in a single pass. Where the single-blade version produces one perfect line at a time, the twin option lets you perforate both sides of a tear-out, coupon or stub together, opening up jobs the single version can't do in one pass.
Fits your machine
Engineered for the world's machines
We make a Micro-Perforator to fit machines from 18 manufacturers, including:
Risk-free
The Tech-ni-Fold five-tier risk-free guarantee — no one in the industry offers anything as powerful: 1. If our products are not as easy to use as we say, and don't save you hours of time, send them back for a full refund. 2. If our creasing products do not eliminate fibre cracking on materials from 85–350gsm, send them back for a full refund. 3. If after three whole months you are not satisfied for any reason — or no reason at all — send them back for a full refund. 4. If after 12 months the product hasn't saved you more than five times its cost, return it for a full refund (just photograph it on your machine first to show you tried it). 5. Every product carries a full 3-year workmanship guarantee — if a device malfunctions in any way in the first three years, we replace it immediately at no cost.