Substance cutting graphtec or summa?

[daniele zarrillo]

hi all guys, I saw that there are already several discussions but I can't decide.
I wanted to get a flat cutting plotter but it's over budget at the moment.
I'm undecided between summa st 160 with opos cam and graphtec.
I've read a lot of positive reviews for both, but for Summa and 21 mil vinyl there are a lot of negative reviews and people who advise against it.
can you tell me your experiences regarding these for the vinyl substance?
Thank you

 

[PHILJOHNSON]

Hi Danielle,

One of our clients recently put the S2 T Series through all its paces trying to cut this material and unfortunately the 21 mil stock just won't cut consistently on the S2 T Series. It's a really heavy material that is difficult to track and while the S2 has enough force to cut it, the cutter doesn't maintain the tracking over distance and that causes the cuts to be off. After seeing and cutting this material myself, I no longer can recommend a roll cutter for that application and would strongly suggest using a flatbed for that application. I know that probably isn't the answer that you want to hear, but I would rather save you the frustration of trying to cut it knowing that it isn't going to work that well. There is a thinner version of Substance vinyl that worked okay, but if you need to work with the 21 mil I would either outsource the cutting to another shop that has a flatbed or getting a flatbed yourself.

Hope this helps and feel free to contact me if you want to pick my brain.

Best regards,

Phil Johnson
Airmark Corporation
(800)527-7778, ext 112(office)
(509)280-6354(cell)
philj@airmark.com

 

[rjssigns]

If budget is a concern Mimaki makes different sizes of flatbed plotters. We have a CF22-1225 in the lab at school. It runs well and with vacuum you can through cut decals. No kiss cutting then perf cutting. Just not a fan of Rasterlink.