Sheffield manufacturer Rollem is teaming up with Heidelberg and Sappi at IPEX2010 to create more than 30,000 packs of playing cards. Heidelberg (www.heidelberg.com) will use a Speedmaster XL 105-10-P to print the cards on 285 gsm Sappi Algro Design Card (www.sappi.com), and during the show, Rollem will use its Revolution finishing system to show how one operator can seamlessly transform printed sheets to fully wrapped decks.

“The B2 sheets will each contain 56 cards, which includes two extra cards for the top and bottom of every pack,” says Rollem managing director Stuart Murphy. “The Revolution system will automatically slit, collate, and punch the cards giving a slit accuracy of +/- 0.05mm, which is casino quality. The king and queen might appear a little fatter than usual because the packs will be US poker size, which is wider than a standard pack typically used in the UK!

“Heidelberg set up the artwork for the cards using its Prinect workflow, which was highly efficient, and we’re extremely grateful to both Heidelberg and Sappi for their willingness to work with us on the project. At IPEX we’ll demonstrate Revolution on-line to a separate wrapping unit. The completed wrapped packs of cards will be available free of charge on all three companies’ stands.”