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Best plotter for contour cutting laminated graphics ?

GB

New Member
I've had a dig through some old threads and got some good info but wanted to get some fresh feedback.

We need a plotter we can cut graphics with after we've printed ( on a Roland ) and laminated.

The vast majority are for offroad motorcycles so pretty thick - 21mils. A flatbed is out of our price range !

Thanks very much for any opinions.
 

rjssigns

Active Member
Are you using Versa works??? Why not get a roland cutter then they will work hand and hand

Do you have a Roland? I'm curious to know how well they cut. Looking at their specs and doing the math they don't look accurate at all. There are all kinds of qualifiers(fine print) to get the claimed accuracy.

A Summa is on my "to buy" list. I haven't seen the latest Graphtec specs so I'll reserve judgement.
 

LittleSnakey

New Member
Summa!

Last week we did a 300" long piece with 100 8x12 rectangle cut decals with no problem.
We don't even have the T series just the D-series.

Tried the graphtec and could not get it to find reg marks consistently
 

Bill Modzel

New Member
I set up 30" x 32" "sheets" with registration marks using Cutting Master in Illustrator and have literally, cut full 50 yard rolls on my Graphtec FC-7000-100. Generally, a 2pt printed stroke is more than enough to trap the cut. It's been amazingly accurate.
 

rjssigns

Active Member
I set up 30" x 32" "sheets" with registration marks using Cutting Master in Illustrator and have literally, cut full 50 yard rolls on my Graphtec FC-7000-100. Generally, a 2pt printed stroke is more than enough to trap the cut. It's been amazingly accurate.

My Roland SP540V print/cut is deadly accurate at those small sheet sizes too. Every 32" your plotter gets to reset. Not really a fair comparison. Jus' sayin'
 

Bill Modzel

New Member
I set them up that way because I cut the sheets off the roll afterwards and stack them in 32" paper cutter and cut the whole batch into individual decals. I can chop through 100 sheets at a time easily for the final cut.
 

a77

New Member
I set them up that way because I cut the sheets off the roll afterwards and stack them in 32" paper cutter and cut the whole batch into individual decals. I can chop through 100 sheets at a time easily for the final cut.


Hey Bill, guessing you don't weed them though do you? We always thought customers wanted the matrix removed, and then we had fun when trying to cut that on the guillotine (slippy slidey), so we went back to hand cutting.
 

Bill Modzel

New Member
Nope, no weeding. There's so much difference in the thickness that you can get a clean cut on the backing paper. It'll tear instead of cut. Kiss cutting the face isn't much different than slit cutting the backing. Either one makes it easier to get the decal off.
 

GB

New Member
Thanks everyone !

I tried contacting Graphtec, left messages , sent e-mails etc and haven't heard anything in over a week. E-mailed Summa and within an hour a had a 'phone call from someone, talked me through the available options even mentioned that he would get a sample of the materials we use so they can play with it and work out our best option. I'd actually like to speak to someone at Graphtec !!

Someone mentioned the Graphtec having trouble finding the reg marks and I have heard this before.

I hadn't looked at the Rolands to be honest & yes we do use Versaworks.
 

Matt-Tastic

New Member
Thanks everyone !

I tried contacting Graphtec, left messages , sent e-mails etc and haven't heard anything in over a week. E-mailed Summa and within an hour a had a 'phone call from someone, talked me through the available options even mentioned that he would get a sample of the materials we use so they can play with it and work out our best option. I'd actually like to speak to someone at Graphtec !!

Someone mentioned the Graphtec having trouble finding the reg marks and I have heard this before.

I hadn't looked at the Rolands to be honest & yes we do use Versaworks.

Summa sells direct, so they have a pretty aggrerssive sales force (hence your quick call return). Graphtec sells through vendors who will be more than happy to answer your questions (depending on the vendor).

Graphtecs are great plotters, and I'll admit the top end Summa plotters are better. I'm just not sure if the Summa is worth the additional pricetag, for most people's needs.
 

SightLine

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Summas support is also every bit as quick as their sales..... even on older long out of warranty machines. Our S160T is about 6 years old, still cuts dead accurate. I did recently have one of the X motors finally give out. Emailed Summa about it and one of their top engineers called here in under an hour. Went back and forth via email after that troubleshooting (did not know what the problem was at first) and quickly determined the issue, ordered a replacement motor and was up and running again literally within a couple of days. Long out of warranty and my only cost was the part itself. You can find where others have the same experience as well - Summas support is second to none. I'm in the middle of a project right now wrapping 8 buses with long term wraps. The logos are all overlays printed on pretty much the most expensive reflective money can buy (customer spec'ed), 48" roll of 3M 680. Each bus has a 16 foot long logo which is printed and cut as "one" cut job, there are also about 20 other smaller pieces/logos/units numbers, etc are all scattered about the same big sheet. The S160T absolutely nails it, one set of marks, it feeds the entire roughly 17 foot long sheet back and forth to detect the marks and cuts the entire thing. This is also laminated with 3M 8548 lam so it is dealing with a pretty thick heavy and long sheet. Keep in mind - due to the expensive nature of this material and the size, yes, we do slow the machine down for something this long. I'm not going to try and have it zoom a 17 foot long single sheet through at its maximum speeds. That would be wreckless.... We do try to break print/cut jobs down into smaller bites when possible keeping them in 4 to 8 foot sections. At those sizes we will run it at a much faster speed.

Over the years I've also cut much longer print/cut jobs as a single cut and it can pull it off no problem.
 
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