DREADED STICKERS!!! Help

[Leebee]

Hey all,

Fairly new to the forum but have learned a lot here.

I manage a printing company that brought in large format a few years ago.
We've been growing and now have a need to make bumper stickers and labels, both contour cut and not, in small quantities.
We are running a 60' Mutoh Falcon (soon to be replaced) (Latex?) and I just bought a Mimaki CG130FX plotter to replace our 24" Chinese plotter.
We run Flexi 10 and don't currently have Fine Cuts as the plotter was used with no software.

The issue at hand is the production process to get the machines to do most all of the work on these labels.

1. What marks and layout tricks do you use when setting up the file and printing?
2. Do you "contour cut" then "half cut" and punch out?
3. Do you cut them all out by hand?
4. Is it common to weed the contour cut label before shipping to the customer.

My quantities range from 100-1000pcs.

Of course sage advice will be appreciated as well.

The 1000 runs will prob get outsourced but the 100 runs seem doable in house.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Solventinkjet]

Hey all,

1. What marks and layout tricks do you use when setting up the file and printing?
2. Do you "contour cut" then "half cut" and punch out?
3. Do you cut them all out by hand?
4. Is it common to weed the contour cut label before shipping to the customer.

1. Use the Mimaki registration "type 2" to save a little space. Make sure the registration marks are completely outside the print and cut data. If you use "type 2" marks make sure your machine is set up to read them instead of "type 1"

2. Half cut contour cuts and perforates at the same time so no need to cut twice. If you want to do half cut invest in the cut strip that is made specifically for half cut and accept that the blade will ware out sooner. It's still worth the hassle if you don't want to hand cut everything out.

3. If you aren't using half cut, I have cut them out by hand and also just given customers rolls of cut stickers. It depends on what their needs are. If they are handing the stickers out as promotional items I would cut each one out and maybe charge a little more. If they are using the stickers you print as labels where one person is sticking them on to a product, just give them the roll.

4. I normally weed for the customer as it is a more finished product. Some customers want the cheapest price they can get so in some cases I would let them weed it if the price is so low that the time it took you to weed wasn't worth it.

Once you replace your Falcon, you might realize that doing 1000 stickers is a piece of cake due to the faster speeds you will get from a newer machine. With a printer that has a DX5 head or better and your Mimaki cutter, I could probably get 1000 stickers out in a couple hours.

 

[Leebee]

2. Half cut contour cuts and perforates at the same time so no need to cut twice. If you want to do half cut invest in the cut strip that is made specifically for half cut and accept that the blade will ware out sooner. It's still worth the hassle if you don't want to hand cut everything out.

Not sure how it can do both at the same time.
The Mimaki requires you to remove the tool, extend the blade for the new depth and select the half cut tool parameters in the menu.

My client wants a contour cut label in a larger rectangle sheet.
I would need to contour cut then change the set up and send a second file for the half cut. Right?

 

[Solventinkjet]

Maybe I am mistaken on that particular model. The Mimaki CJV30 half cut feature does contour cut and perf at the same time. You set up the half cut feature with two pressures. One for the kiss cut and one to cut through the liner. It cuts like normal but the blade moves up and down, creating the perforation.

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

No you just need to half cut once, just make sure you move your blade in the front slot of the blade holder so it cuts on the spongy cut strip. and away you go.

 

[Leebee]

I get that if the client wanted the labels cut to the shape of the contour but these need to be contour cut then cut out into squares as well.



I may or may not weed them like in the pic.