Kiss Cut on a Zund/Summa/Kongsberg

[DrunknMonk]

Hi all, does anyone use the above machines to kiss cut vinyls (printed & laminated) ?

We bought a rebranded machine, everything works well a part from the kiss cutting. it does work its just not brill, either to deep or not deep enough, over the whole bed (1.6 x 2.5m)

Can anyone tell me if there KCT blade moves up and down in the holder, (pressure moves it) ours does, we were told its to compensate for the conveyor belt, we can set it to move as much or as little as we want. (its like it has play in it, spring loaded)

Ive been using roll vinyl cutters for 25+ years and they have all been fixed and cutting on the hard cutting strip, and all worked very good including the Summa S2 cutter we currently use.

Im trying to fine tune it, it take hrs to get it just right.

the way we were shown to set it up was, just have the blades tip out of the holder, (minimum as we can) then by hand press the tool holder firmly on the vinyl and cut a circle, just so it scratches the backing sheet.

we do this but then we have pressure from the software, play in the tool holder its self (up and down) and we can adjust the tool its self.

It just seam very hit and miss, to many things to change, not sure what each thing does.

any help would be appreciated.

Thanks Gary

 

[Grizzly]

There are multiple factors that contribute to getting the kiss-cut tool to work well.
1. Level Bed - Since you just bought it, was the bed fully leveled? Not just the machine but they go under the table at different locations with a tool on the carriage to make sure every point is level.
2. Conveyer Belt - The older the conveyor belt gets the more small little grooves it has in it. I've noticed that the part that we use the most with drag knife cutting tends to get worse over time with kiss-cutting since the carpet isn't as dense in those places.
3. Tool - You have knife depth, shoe depth and spring tension. You want the knife to be just deep enough that it cuts through the material but not the backer. This is where the shoe comes in to play. The shoe keeps it from going too deep. And then there is spring tension. There are three different spring tensions for the Zund; Blue, Red and Gold. We've used both red and gold with similar results. All the way down is the most tension. Set depth first the adjust spring tension. The blue doesn't work well for us. It just does not have enough spring tension to get through Print and Laminated Material.
4. Software Settings - It should be set to .0394. Just slightly above the belt as to not cut all the way through the backer.
5. Ambient Temperature - The warmer that material is, the softer it is and the hard it is to kiss cut because it can drag rather than cut.

That should be everything! Good luck!
Jeremy