Plotter/Cutter for laminated decals

[lenwardus]

Have been designing decals for a long time and decided to make them
myself. Bought a used Roland SP 300V. Have had great results with
the print and cut system. Using Oracal vinyl and laminate. Printing,
laminating, then placing media back into the Roland...cutting a contour
then perfcutting at 260 gm and 5 speed. Decals pop out clean and nice
cut.

Want to speed up the production and looking for a cutter/plotter.

Have researched the Graphtec FC-8000, but not sure if that's the
best compatible cutter for the Roland printer or better to integrate
a Roland cutter and run off the same software.

Haven't been able to determine if I can skip the contour cut and
get a clean perf cut from the Graphtec cutter, which would eliminate
the weeding.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[robahl]

bump

 

[CS-SignSupply-TT]

In order to get the "clean perf cut" you desire, the best solution would be a flatbed cutter. Traditional vinyl cutters are not designed for the "cut through". Check out this website
http://www.graphtecamerica.com/cuttingplotters.html

 

[lenwardus]

Flatbed cutter would be nice, not in budget this time.
Have had success with Gx300 cutting refl + lam + magnetic combined.
Use special cleanblade 60 degree carbide blades.

Added extra pinch rollers and will modify to flat table aluminum for feed and exit of machine. Hybrid flatbed cutter.

 

[boxerbay]

the fc-8000 will die cut your decals in one pass.

 

[lenwardus]

The laminated decals cut well on the SP300 as the heat softens
the paper backing. For lam+refl+magnetic use the GX-300, contour
cut then perfcut on same vector, pop out with clean cut even
intricate details. The GX-300 has aluminum feed and exit base, so magnetic sheeting doesn't stick. Servo motor seems strong and doesn't seem to strain with material at 48" total length, added more pinch rollers
as it tends to lift up at cutting point and during movement of the blade
position can leaves scratches. Hopefully the flat end mini table additions
will cure that.

Tried using a graphtec CE3000-60 to cut magnetic material, but could not get it to cut shapes accurately. Also with GX-300 can read roland
registration marks and cuts out dead on.

Will work OK until finding a used flatbed cutter.