Does Flexi Cloud fully support Summa S2 cutters?

[CarNate69]

We are looking at the Summa S2 Series, T140 cutter. Summa recommends we use their standard winplot software with their cutter, but we are Flexi Cloud people, so we need all functions (Flexcut, Contour cut) to work with the cutter correctly when using only Flexi for Rip and Cutting (we want to contour cut AND Flex Cut).

I see that the options are listed within Flexi to adjust some of the Flexcut parameters, do these matter, or are the settings made and used based on the on screen setup on the cutter itself?

Anyone running this setup? I've searched high and low, and can't seem to get an answer. Summa themselves don't seem like they recommend Flexi over their own Winplot software, which we refuse to use. If it does work, have you found any limitations that the actual summa software would do and Flexi wouldn't?

Thanks!

 

[CarNate69]

Just a note - I have also called Flexi about this directly, it seems getting an answer on this subject is more difficult than expected. It seems Flexi isn't super familiar with Summa's software and Summa always recommends heavily towards their software, which is fine, but doesn't give us a solid answer either way .

We have gone through this before with a Summa printer - Summa said Flexi worked just fine with it, then we got the machine and realized we HAD to use Corel Draw or Illustrator with their plugin to get ALL of the functionality of their machine...we have to avoid this with our print setup and it's a deal breaker for us if we can't get the functionality through Flexi that we need.

 

[FrankW]

It isn't difficult.

S2 works fine with FlexiCloud, but do not support every single feature. For example, since FlexiCloud, in addition to OPOS X, OPOS XY is supported too (scanning of an additional line to compensate bowing/smiley-effects during contour cutting), but not OPOS Barcode until now. Standard Cutting and FlexCut in one job is supported, but there is no possibility to set the parameters or multiple setups (as Onyx RIP-Software allow it) for FlexCut in the software. They need to be set in the plotter, and Flexi can activate FlexCut for specific contours of the job (color-separated).

About Summa-Printers: there are a lot of problems with Summa DC-Printer driving in the past, with FlexiCloud it works fine, but - as with the S2 too - doesn't support all possibilities. For example, I would like to print more than one layer of white to have a higher density on coloured vinyl, but with Flexi only one layer of every color can be set in one job (I still search for a workaround to do that). This job is made fine with the (very cheap) Summa Color Control-Software, but there is no need to use Illustrator or Corel for that: Flexi supports Spot colors and DuoSpot colors (including a palette with the DuoSpot colors summa shows in the brochure they deliver with the printer), can create the cut contours with the names the Color Control-Software needs (CutContour, PerfContour), is able to create finishing- and underbase-layers and export to EPS to take it into color control if needed.

Some of the items, specially the need for OPOS Barcode, is mentioned to SAi, but it looks like that they will not integrate it shortly. If you want to do high productive label printing, I would suggest to buy the summa with a take-up unit, create the labels in Flexi but do printing and cutting - and I hate to say that, I'm a Flexi-Fan - with an Onyx RIP (you can automate job processing on a very high level). If you do mostly printing and just contour cutting from time to time, Flexi is a very easy to use integrated tool.

 

[CarNate69]

Great answer, thanks a ton for answering my questions. We plan on cutting them sheet by sheet, we generally print and laminate at 53" x 39" runs, printer to the floor sizing basically, we don't (yet) get into the take up reel printing or roll to roll printing, so I think Flexi will do exactly what we want?

I assume that within Flexi or within the cutters interface, we can turn off flexi's specific cutting setup (I see there are lots of options to change how the flex cut works and tune it within Flexi - but the cutter also has a lot of these options too apparently?), and use only the cutters interface setup each time? This would allow us to have multiple profiles that can easily be selected on the cutter itself when we change media? Does that sound accurate?

 

[FrankW]

Great answer, thanks a ton for answering my questions.

You're welcome.

We plan on cutting them sheet by sheet, we generally print and laminate at 53" x 39" runs, printer to the floor sizing basically, we don't (yet) get into the take up reel printing or roll to roll printing, so I think Flexi will do exactly what we want?

Yes, it will work for you. And specially the Summa, because OPOS have a special feature for cutting sheets: the sheet mode. If you want to cut multiple copies of the same artwork on sheets, you just need to set the plotter in sheet mode and send the contour job one time ... after that, everytime you set a new sheet into the plotter nearly at the same position of the last one (as nearer, as faster the plotter will find the first mark) and lower the lever the plotter will automatically search the markers and cut the contours out of his own memory ... and will count them on the display (S have done counting, I'm 99% shure S2 will count too). You do not need to leave the cutter during cutting tons of copies.

I assume that within Flexi or within the cutters interface, we can turn off flexi's specific cutting setup (I see there are lots of options to change how the flex cut works and tune it within Flexi - but the cutter also has a lot of these options too apparently?), and use only the cutters interface setup each time? This would allow us to have multiple profiles that can easily be selected on the cutter itself when we change media? Does that sound accurate?

Yes, you can disable flexi's specific cutting setup, you just need to send the FlexCut-command (or set the plotter into the FlexCut-Mode, but thats not recommended if you need to do a standard cut/kiss cut too).

I'm not shure where you see the options to change how FlexCut works ... there is nothing. When setting up a Contour, instead of a regular line you could set different kinds of interrupted lines, but thats NOT FlexCut. The FlexCut Summa offers is more enhanced ... you do not have gaps in the line, the plotter will continously cut ... but with different pressures to cut through the backing where it is wanted and let don't cut through the backing (e. g. just for the vinyl) for little distances to let the label remain in the sheet as long as wanted. You need to set up a standard line and assign FlexCut to the line color.

But you will see that as soon as you get the plotter and check the menu settings. By the way, a Summa S-Class T is - not for my opinion only - the best roll cutter on the market, with the most enhanced contour cutting system.

 

[FrankW]

Forgotten to say:

When cutting sheets on a roll plotter, you will lose the last one or two inches of a sheet because of the tracking. The plotter can't feed the sheet to the very end because it needs to be tracked by the rollers.

 

[CarNate69]

Awesome, this is great info, thanks again. Which cutter do you recommend? We're after it more for it's flexcut abilities and it's dead on accuracy, which Summa seems to be the leader in. We have Roland print/cut and stand alone plotter machinery, we've looked at Graphtec, we've look at flatbeds ($$!) and I'm not sure what we haven't looked at!

For the sheet size, we always leave a few inches at the end past the crop marks, so the machine can cut up till the last row.

Do you have good luck with the Summa with the Flexcutting? Anyone else have any issues or all around great success with it? We're prepared to tune it in, and prepared to tweak it as needed, just want to make sure it isn't a headache or adds to the production times.

 

[FrankW]

FlexCut on Summa works fine. For Beginners, it takes little time to get used to fine tune the parameters, but with a little experience it works well and fast.

I don't like Graphtec so much. And, when the focus is on contour cutting, the best choice will be Summa S-Class, for FlexCut preferably the T-models.

 

[CarNate69]

One last question - what are your experiences with tuning the machine to flexcut custom contoured shapes (say the more basic flowing shape of a car) rather than squares or circles?

 

[FrankW]

One last question - what are your experiences with tuning the machine to flexcut custom contoured shapes (say the more basic flowing shape of a car) rather than squares or circles?

FlexCut will cut every vector you define, but there is a limit that floats depending of complexity, size of the contours and stability of the backing. But if you don't want to flexcut to detailed (for example branches of a 5cm tree ), you will not run into problems.