accuracy of the S160T

[bigben]

I'm looking to change my cutter. Right now, I have an eye on the S160t. How accurate it is? Let's says I have a bunch of 2inX5in decals, can I do a full roll without any problem and always ''right on the line''? I will do alot of this kind of jobs, so I want the best.

Also, does the price difference between a graphtec FC8000 REALY worth it? Can you elaborate in your answer?

Thanks.

Ben.

 

[gregger2k]

We just bought a new S120T and love it!! We were using a D160 before.
We printed and lamed a 9' set of graphics and cut it on the 120t, removed it from the cutter, and then noticed that we did not have the blade set deep enough ;(

We put it back in the S120T, let the OPOSX do its magic, and....... You could not tell anywhere that it had been through the cutter twice!! Just the single cut line! Maybe it was just a fluke but the accuracy sure saved our print. This is the first T cutter we have used and for us it is wort the extra money. Amazing detail and razor sharp corners. And the OPOS is rock solid with the multiple markers!

I do not know how many markers the Graphtec can put down the sides but the Summa can put multiple markers at a specified spacing. If you put the markers down the whole side of your roll the Summa will self adjust for any skew or distortion.

Greg

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Yeah, it's that accurate. We have the S160D, accuracy will be the same as the tangential model. We routinely run 15-20' sheets of decals with zero walk-off throughout the sheet. We've cut upwards of 60-70' long sheets before too and while it's not fun and you have to slow it down, it was successful.

And yeah, it's worth the price difference. We sent back 3 Graphtecs before settling on the Summa and haven't looked back. They're not in the same league.

 

[bloobird0]

The hardware looks OK but what about the software?

The graphtec comes with an illustrator/corel plugin so there is no need to export cut lines and export in an other software. How does it look with Summa? Is there a plugin available or only a standelone software?

Is the cutting accuracy better than a FC8000?

 

[Nickg]

Summa Software

Summa Machines come with Winplot software for Windows and MacSign Software for Mac which are Corel/AI bridge applications. These applications allow you to define cut lines and set registration marks within your design software, then send the job to your Summa.

If you have any other questions, feel free to give me a call.

Nick Garras
Summa USA
NickG@summa.us
1-800-527-7778 x 137

 

[bigben]

Summa Machines come with Winplot software for Windows and MacSign Software for Mac which are Corel/AI bridge applications. These applications allow you to define cut lines and set registration marks within your design software, then send the job to your Summa.

If you have any other questions, feel free to give me a call.

Nick Garras
Summa USA
NickG@summa.us
1-800-527-7778 x 137

Thanks Nick! I will surely give you a call tomorrow.

 

[bigben]

one more question. Let say I have 200 5inX2in decals, would you say it will cut on the line without adding any bleed? Is it that reliable?

Sorry, but I don't have access to a demo to try it out...

 

[SightLine]

We have a S160Tand yes - it is super accurate. A whole roll spot on though? Sometimes if it's a smallish sheet I will cut dead on with no bleed but I pretty much always use a tiny bit of bleed to be safe.... I mean adding .02 inches bleed is not going to use that much more material. On longer runs (10+ feet) or heavy rolls you do have to slow it down some to keep the accuracy up but it will do it no problem.

 

[Nickg]

Ben,

Thank you for question, when discussing cut accuracy there are two specifications to consider. The first, tracking, simply refers to the amount of material that is able to be sent through the cutter before the material goes off the tracks. The second and most important is repeatability,which measures the length of material that can be accurately contour cut without bleed per job.

All Summa cutters come with a repeatability guarantee and for our T-series cutters, this guarantee is 40'. What this means for you is that you can reliably cut up to 40 feet of decals without the worry of accuracy issues. To compare, our closest competitor, the Graphtec FC-8000 is able to guarantee 80 inches of repeatability.

Also, I do need to correct my previous post specifically regarding the MacSign software. The free version of MacSign (MacSign Cut) does act as a bridge application between Illustrator or Corel and Summa cutters, but only for cut vinyl decals. In order to contour cut pre-printed graphics you would need to upgrade to MacSign Lite which is $499.

Of course this only applies if you are using a Mac, WinPlot for windows does support all of the features listed above including contour cutting.

Hope that answers your questions, let me know if I can help you with anything else.

Nick Garras
Summa USA
NickG@summa.us
1-800-527-7778 x 137

 

[Rooster]

I have the S160T and it is truly that accurate. I still put a little bleed on decals though.

 

[ColesCreations]

Best you can get, but why in hell would you send a full roll for cut? One little slip and the whole roll is bad, including laminate and all.

We print a few hundred stickers at a time, maybe 6-10', and send the job as many times as needed to get the amount we need, then it's just a matter of putting the graphics in the cutter, align with first mark and send. Takes almost no time at all to do this a few times..

And yes, the Summas are dead accurate.

 

[bloobird0]

between S class D and T, what kind of thing the first one is not good at?

Is accuracy the same for both?

 

[GB2]

As far as accuracy goes, I was told that the OPOS system is good for speed when volume cutting and not necessarily for greater accuracy. Therefore if you don't need it for the additional speed then maybe it's not worth investing the extra money in that feature. Nick, perhaps you or someone else who owns one could elaborate on that a bit.

 

[Rooster]

between S class D and T, what kind of thing the first one is not good at?

Is accuracy the same for both?

Accuracy is the same for both. The only difference is the T model has a tangential head for the blade so it cuts tougher materials (engineering grade, sandblast mask, etc) with more accuracy since the blade rotates to the correct angle for each cut instead of just being dragged behind the head.

The OPUS camera has no effect on speed, but a great effect on accuracy when you're cutting printed decals. It has no use when you're just doing regular cut vinyl. With the OPUS marks you can print about 51.5" in width without issue. Sometimes the marks at the far end of the unit don't get read. It appears they have a margin there that you can manually position the OPUS camera over, but it won't automatically find the marks if they're a little too far to the left side (looking at the machine from the front).

 

[bloobird0]

I would like to use it for very precise decals contour cut (the integrated cutter in my Mimaki CJV30 is not that precise) but also trim some startnumbers printed in tyvek, some posters in 130g paper and cut decals out of backing paper. Would a D version suit the need (especially cut Tyvek material)?

 

[Summa]

Summa OPOS Clarification

We actually have two OPOS systems available and the accuracy is the same for both models.

1) OPOS-X is standard on all new Summa cutter models. This system uses a light that senses the contrast of a black registration mark and the background material.

2) OPOS-Cam is only available as an option on our S140-T & S160-T Tangential models. This system uses a camera sensor to view the registration marks which is able to process the information about ten times faster. If you are handling a high volume of contour cutting this feature will save time.

Feel free to contact me with any questions.

 

[Stan B]

I have an OPOS-Cam s160T and found it's accuracy to be very low. I would not even consider cutting anything printed without a significant bleed added. Cutting over 5-6 feet is generally trouble too.

 

[Summa]

OPOS Accuracy

Hi Stan,

I reached out to you previously but we did not connect, please give me a call to discuss.

Thank you,

 

[Jim Doggett]

How accurate it is?

Very. But it's still best to break it up into 4 or 5 jobs, and then step-and-repeat. It still does the entire roll, unattended, but in segments for better accuracy. The rub is loading the roll, exactly straight, so even prefectly-straight tracking doesn't go off the edge by the time you get farther down the roll. So if doing an entire roll, give yourself some extra margin on the sides. Maybe an inch on each side instead of and half-inch, which is ample for most typical contour-cutting runs.

 

[LittleSnakey]

Another vote for the summa over the graphtec..... we had both and the summa was definately worth the extra money. Our graphtec had problems finding crop marks for alignment, the construction of the machine does not compare to the summa, the user inputs to the summa are way more user friendly.

Ours is very accurate but we always add .03 - .06 of bleed depending on how big the sheet is.

We use Flexi mostly for rip/print so it puts the opus marks on for us, then we save the cut file from product manager to send to the cutter via summa cut control.

Drew sold us ours.... Thanks Again!!!