Suggestions Is the summa tangential plotter a better plotter? Easier weeding and workflow?

[depps74]

I am contemplating buying a Summa cutter. The tangential cutters are a considerable cost, but they seem to be worth the price as it claims to be a better machine a better cut and better tracking and repeatability?

The reason I am doing this is because my current plotter is on the out and I want to up my game, plus my old plotter (and most plotters in general) no longer work on MACS. Summa seems to be the only plotter out there that does work with macs.

Any help is much appreciated.

d

 

[Robert Gruner]

No doubt the Summa Tangential 54" wide cutter is the King Daddy of vinyl cutters.
<<claims to be a better machine a better cut and better tracking and repeatability?>>
Better machine...just might be?
a better cut...the best!
better tracking...with added pinch-wheels, just might be?
better repeatability...again, just might be?
All in all, a really nice cutter that is best suited to high volume cutting, cutting small letters and pin stripes, or heavy duty media like 3M Prismatic Street Sign material. For these applications, it's worth the extra money.

 

[Solventinkjet]

Tangential > Drag Knife all day long. It's just more expensive and drag knife style gets the job done well enough for most people. Once you weed a tangential cut job though, you may never go back.

 

[geb]

Yes, get the summa tangential.

 

[ProPDF]

They are nice but I think summa deliberately doesn't give enough pinch rollers on their cutters thus forcing you to pay hundreds of dollars per pinch roller on top of the retail price to obtain that perfect tracking....most don't figure this out until it's unboxed and setup in your shop.

 

[printhog]

summa rocks

My summa T750 tangential plotter earned over $1.75 million dollars in plotting work during its lifetime (doesnt count grinder print n cut stuff, just vinyl plotting).
Do you need any better review? For a $5,000 investment? I used it to make a lot of tight registration inlay vinyl work that a drag knife cant do.. color into color, 0.05" outlines cut in 3m 7755, 0.125" tall letters... It handled thick laminated reflectives well. I've owned Summa, Gerber, Anagraph, Aristo, and those chinese cheapos.. by far the best machine was the Aristo flatbed, but Summa was a close second as its faster for contour cut work.

My Summa died when its head solenoid literally came apart into a mess of tiny copper wires during a plot. But after 13 years of daily duty without flaw or failure? no complaints.. (and Summa can repair that - parts still available for $2100.. who else supports decade old equipment?)

If youre interested in making fine detail vinyl work with precision, then the Summa line is likely a great choice. If youre looking for high production of low resolution work, then consider multiple plotters that are basically disposable.

 

[ProColorGraphics]

Summa tangential all the way!! I went from the SummaCut to the T-Series and there is definitely a reason the tangential costs about twice as much! You definitely get what you pay for there!!

 

[bob]

Consider that the mechanism that works satisfactorily with the fewest moving parts might be the superior mechanism. Note that I avoid tiny and/or hideously complicated cutting jobs like the plague. The trick is to do them some other way or just not do them at all. Much easier than spending an incredible amount of money for a cutting feature that is, in reality, seldom used.

While a tangential cutter may well be far superior to a drag knife to me it represents something else to fail. And it will. The only way a drag knife can fail is if you glue it in the blade holder.

 

[RyanT]

I don't have much to compare to since it's the only machine I've ever used, but I bought a used Summa S160T and regularly cut vinyl fonts down to 0.25". Now, I don't like doing fonts that small and try to avoid it for my own sanity, but I still do it. The machine is probably 6 years old and as far as I know has never failed (knock on wood). I've also cut 64in long pieces using flex-cut (the setting that perforates the backer) and it tracks just fine.

 

[Bill Heishman]

I regularly opus cut 150" long x 52" printed graphics on my S140T with no tracking issues. I've used and abused and worn out 3 summa plotters, starting with a T750. I've been able to order parts and repair and replace many breakdowns myself with help from their phone techs. I personally would not buy a different brand. I'm trying to help a local school repair a graphtec plotter right now. The printer is much lighter built and easier to break. And, just try to find parts for it or get advice from the factory. Not so easy...

 

[floater302]

Once you buy a summa you will never buy anything else, and the tangential all the way.

 

[DonutSlinger]

My own experience is that SUMMA S2 TANGENTIAL machines have the capability but incredibly lacking in software implementation and support when it comes to contour cutting. Using it STRICTLY for cut vinyl jobs it's great.

We have had glitches after glitches with it, such as the software not being able to communicate with the machine, yet if you click a button it all of a sudden it works, We have used ETHERNET and USB with the same results. Summa replaced the mainboard and things got worse after that. There are too many shortcomings with this machine to recommend it for a print and cut workflow. You will find your workflow more complex and less reliable. It has the features but they are poorly implemented and unreliable. I'm not sure if they have to do with the software side or drivers. We have used Flexi, SummaCut(what's included, and is crap), and MacSign (fully licensed $500 upgrade to use for print and cut), they all have their shortcomings in handling this machine. We keep wishing we could use the Graphtec software. Every day we are throwing out sheets that are cut horribly wrong with no clear reason why. I literally just threw away 2.5 yrds of phototex with printed graphics.

If it wasn't mentioned you will need to purchase 3rd party software to fully utilize the machine. As far as an easier workflow, I'd take graphtec over these machines. Far too many areas for failure and mistakes with summa compared to with Graphtec. More steps to get the same result compared to a Graphtec. I think these machines need further development to reliably function with it's vast capabilities. Summa could easily address these with software and driver updates. Some issues I believe could be solved with 3rd party developers.

We deal in high volume repetitive work and this machine has been nothing but problems and wasted materials left and right. Think very hard about it before purchasing.

If you want my machine I'd be happy to sell it to you for a discount. It was purchased brand new in March of 2019.

Does anyone know of a tangential machine that has barcode functions that are not summas, please? Looking to buy a new machine.

 

[Bly]

Weird. Ours works quite well using Onyx and Summa barcode server.
Sometimes we have trouble getting the communication established but once running we can easily cut a full roll without intervention.

 

[PHILJOHNSON]

My own experience is that SUMMA S2 TANGENTIAL machines have the capability but incredibly lacking in software implementation and support when it comes to contour cutting. Using it STRICTLY for cut vinyl jobs it's great.

We have had glitches after glitches with it, such as the software not being able to communicate with the machine, yet if you click a button it all of a sudden it works, We have used ETHERNET and USB with the same results. Summa replaced the mainboard and things got worse after that. There are too many shortcomings with this machine to recommend it for a print and cut workflow. You will find your workflow more complex and less reliable. It has the features but they are poorly implemented and unreliable. I'm not sure if they have to do with the software side or drivers. We have used Flexi, SummaCut(what's included, and is crap), and MacSign (fully licensed $500 upgrade to use for print and cut), they all have their shortcomings in handling this machine. We keep wishing we could use the Graphtec software. Every day we are throwing out sheets that are cut horribly wrong with no clear reason why. I literally just threw away 2.5 yrds of phototex with printed graphics.

If it wasn't mentioned you will need to purchase 3rd party software to fully utilize the machine. As far as an easier workflow, I'd take graphtec over these machines. Far too many areas for failure and mistakes with summa compared to with Graphtec. More steps to get the same result compared to a Graphtec. I think these machines need further development to reliably function with it's vast capabilities. Summa could easily address these with software and driver updates. Some issues I believe could be solved with 3rd party developers.

We deal in high volume repetitive work and this machine has been nothing but problems and wasted materials left and right. Think very hard about it before purchasing.

If you want my machine I'd be happy to sell it to you for a discount. It was purchased brand new in March of 2019.

Does anyone know of a tangential machine that has barcode functions that are not summas, please? Looking to buy a new machine.

Good afternoon,

Your experience with the Summa is atypical and something must be amiss here. I don't believe you purchased this machine from us but perhaps we could provide you with some support to get you up and running efficiently with your Summa. There are no other roll-fed tangential cutters out there, much less with the ability to output with an automated barcode workflow, so if you're able to iron out a few things with your current Summa I think you will be very satisfied with the performance.

Feel free to email me at philj@airmark.com if you want to pick my brain. FYI, I will be out of the office for vacation next week so I might be slow to reply next week but I will definitely reply when I have a chance.

Best regards,

Phil Johnson
Airmark Corporation
(800)527-7778, ext 112
philj@airmark.com