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Graphtec Tangetial emmulation
- Thread starter craigco
- Start date
chopper
New Member
tangental turns the blade instead of draging it arround the corners,
this works well in heavy materials but I dont know if it will help in the small letter department, I have a drag knife type and it will cut smaller than 1/4" with no problems, mine is a summa but I am shure that the graphtec will do this also
but if you are going to do small letters all the time I would go to an edge, or printer where you can print the letters with a background and skip the weeding, weeding those small letters are a pain, //chopper
this works well in heavy materials but I dont know if it will help in the small letter department, I have a drag knife type and it will cut smaller than 1/4" with no problems, mine is a summa but I am shure that the graphtec will do this also
but if you are going to do small letters all the time I would go to an edge, or printer where you can print the letters with a background and skip the weeding, weeding those small letters are a pain, //chopper
Jackpine
New Member
I have had a Roland PNC 1000 since the mid 80's and a Roland GX24. The GX24 is supposed to be similar to the Mk2. Not so. I sold the GX24. I love my Graphtec and it cuts small letters great. The only time I had a problem was my fault. I replaced blade ( CleanCut blades good!) and had the spring set in wrong. Sooooo yes it cut small letters very good. I don't cut any letters under 3/8 to 1/2 if I absolutely have to.
Howard Keiper
New Member
Tangential control will benefit you most if you're cutting thick materials.
Any Graphtec from 4100 series and up; the CE 1000's and up can cut 1/16th characters (upper case, no serifs)...that's 0.062", and the lower case is .7 of that. Sometimes you can weed off the liner, sometimes you need to weed off the application, but the cut is perfect in any case. You don't need Tangential control to do this.
howard
Any Graphtec from 4100 series and up; the CE 1000's and up can cut 1/16th characters (upper case, no serifs)...that's 0.062", and the lower case is .7 of that. Sometimes you can weed off the liner, sometimes you need to weed off the application, but the cut is perfect in any case. You don't need Tangential control to do this.
howard
Tangetial
Every now and then we get the small stuff, like 1/4 inch or so. It's just a pain to weed without messing up. I hear all this stuff about the tagential being so good with small and thin stuff, so i thought i would ask. Right now we have a graphtec 5100-75 and CE2000. The graphtec 5100-75 is supposed to have the tangential, but i don't use that one, someone else does the cutting for me on that machine. I can't get him to get it right.
So i guess is what i am asking is: is this just the way it is, or is it something we are doing (considering the two machines we have) that is creating the lack luster cutting on small stuff? Or can you buy a machine that will do small and large stuff. I'm anal sometimes on getting things done right the first time, especially in this business.
Thanks for all your responses.
Craig
Every now and then we get the small stuff, like 1/4 inch or so. It's just a pain to weed without messing up. I hear all this stuff about the tagential being so good with small and thin stuff, so i thought i would ask. Right now we have a graphtec 5100-75 and CE2000. The graphtec 5100-75 is supposed to have the tangential, but i don't use that one, someone else does the cutting for me on that machine. I can't get him to get it right.
So i guess is what i am asking is: is this just the way it is, or is it something we are doing (considering the two machines we have) that is creating the lack luster cutting on small stuff? Or can you buy a machine that will do small and large stuff. I'm anal sometimes on getting things done right the first time, especially in this business.
Thanks for all your responses.
Craig
Plus
Just to let you know,
I usually do the weeding, application and installation plus designs. So i don't do much cutting. This is why I am asking. I am not that knowledgable about the cutting aspect. However, I am going to be. HaHa.
So all your replys are very appreciated.
Craig
Just to let you know,
I usually do the weeding, application and installation plus designs. So i don't do much cutting. This is why I am asking. I am not that knowledgable about the cutting aspect. However, I am going to be. HaHa.
So all your replys are very appreciated.
Craig
Fred Weiss
Merchant Member
Back in days of yore all plotters were tangential cutting toolheads. Instead of a blade tip being offset so that it can swivel as it makes a turn, the tool head is rotated by a motor and has no offset. It is theoretically the most accurate way to cut because the tip of the blade is always following the exact vector toolpath.
In actual practice, it is slower because the tool is lifted, turned and dropped back at every corner. Also an issue is some corners not being cut cleanly for reasons I won't go into. All Gerber plotters from the beginning in 1982 through the HS series were tangential. Tangential toolheads are also more expensive to build.
Early swivel blade systems were fairly unsophisticated adaptations used with plotters designed for pen drawings. They were inferior to tangential cutters and tainted the reputation of the technology. Today's swivel knife systems deliver exceptional accuracy and quality. They are faster, quieter and less expensive.
As an interesting piece of history, and having ordered a copy of Gerber's original patent on their vinyl cutting plotter, I can tell you that their original design used a hot tip to accomplish the cutting of vinyl. The first machine they actually brought to market though was a tangential cutting version.
The concept of the hot tip was later brought to market by a now defunct company named TechnoArts. They fitted what looked like a soldering gun to an Ioline plotter and did quite well for some time. It literally burned through the vinyl to accomplish cutting. They went out of business around 1990 or so, owing a lot of people money and ran their sign supply business after that known as Performance Sign Products. The manager of PSP, a nice young man, left them shortly after that and resurfaced as the owner of the old Airmark Sign Supply which went on to become Summa USA.
:Sleeping: :Sleeping: :Sleeping:
In actual practice, it is slower because the tool is lifted, turned and dropped back at every corner. Also an issue is some corners not being cut cleanly for reasons I won't go into. All Gerber plotters from the beginning in 1982 through the HS series were tangential. Tangential toolheads are also more expensive to build.
Early swivel blade systems were fairly unsophisticated adaptations used with plotters designed for pen drawings. They were inferior to tangential cutters and tainted the reputation of the technology. Today's swivel knife systems deliver exceptional accuracy and quality. They are faster, quieter and less expensive.
As an interesting piece of history, and having ordered a copy of Gerber's original patent on their vinyl cutting plotter, I can tell you that their original design used a hot tip to accomplish the cutting of vinyl. The first machine they actually brought to market though was a tangential cutting version.
The concept of the hot tip was later brought to market by a now defunct company named TechnoArts. They fitted what looked like a soldering gun to an Ioline plotter and did quite well for some time. It literally burned through the vinyl to accomplish cutting. They went out of business around 1990 or so, owing a lot of people money and ran their sign supply business after that known as Performance Sign Products. The manager of PSP, a nice young man, left them shortly after that and resurfaced as the owner of the old Airmark Sign Supply which went on to become Summa USA.
:Sleeping: :Sleeping: :Sleeping:
Howard Keiper
New Member
There's a reason to use Tangential Emmulation...that reason is NOt to cut tiny characters, although sometimes it's useful for that. You use tangential control to cut thick materials, typically on the order of .035" or so, where you just can't physically pull a swivel knife through an acute angle or around a small radius. But you don't have to...that's the joy of tangential...and no, you don't need a motor to turn the blade.
For cutting small characters, and by small I mean 1/16th or less, you need a Graphtec swivel knife system....period.
howard
For cutting small characters, and by small I mean 1/16th or less, you need a Graphtec swivel knife system....period.
howard
barrettgraphics
New Member
i use Tangential Emmulation mode on reflective with better results than without it.