Discussion Summa Drag Knife Flexcut - What settings work best at your shop?

[devdev]

Working on a large order of decals and it seems to be a constant struggle to get our through/weed/flex cuts fairly consistent. We are getting a lot of tiny "tabs" and ripped backing and it doesn't look the best (we do our best to clean them up and our customers usually don't care, it's just backing paper after all).
We use a Summa D-160 with Flexi and wanted to know what you folks suggest for flex cuts that are quite consistent.
What are your lengths for Through and Flex cuts to ensure easy tears?
Obviously pressure is a different beast entirely that we need to perfect on our own, but I wanted to see what works best for folks!

 

[PHILJOHNSON]

What type of material are you flex cutting and how thick is it? What are you current settings for full & flex length, as well as full and flex pressure? It would also be helpful to know what blade you are using as well as how detailed the cuts are that you're trying to perf. Once I know a bit more about how you've got things set currently, I should be able to offer up some suggestions to get things dialed in better.

Best regards,

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

 

[devdev]

What type of material are you flex cutting and how thick is it?

We cut several materials, usually its between an intermediate sign vinyl Oracal 3641 or Reflective 5400, both laminated. So a bit thicker than everyday decals.

What are you current settings for full & flex length, as well as full and flex pressure?

Pressure is obviously different for different materials. Mostly why I was asking about the lengths. Our printer provided the settings to me this morning:
Full pressure length: 0.397in // Pressure 385g
Flex Pressure Length: 0.047in // Pressure 255g
We just use the Weeding function on Flexi so it is just a square that surrounds the decal. I thought we used a 45* blade, but it looks like the guys have a 36*, which is probably part of our issue :S .
The lengths match our tabbing and i think this was used on a thicker decal (hence the higher pressures for the through cuts.

We are still learning the processes and understand this is an older machine but it gets jobs done. Feedback would be awesome! I saw the Summa booth at PU last year in Atlanta and the guy was able to tap the vinyl and the decals just dropped (would be nice but we aren't necessarily expecting this for everyday use).

Thanks! (edited to add blade degree)

 

[Saturn]

I cut a lot of ~3mil + laminate stuff, and so long as it has adhesive, I always suggest forgoing the FLexCut and just doing "regular" cuts. If you have the cut dialed in close, the adhesive will actually still hold most things together enough that they don't fall out in away that's detrimental to cutting, but enough that you can "pop" them out easily at a work table.

You also could try this in your current workflow by making the Full Pressure Length whatever the max is, the Flex the minimum, and use the same pressure on both. That would just let you play around without having to completely upend what you're doing.

 

[PHILJOHNSON]

Thanks for providing me with additional information on the materials and blade and pressure settings. We don't recommend flex cutting materials thicker than 6 mil, and the max kiss cutting thickness you can cut at full pressure with a 36 degree blade is 10 mil, so I am thinking these materials are just too thick to flex cut effectively. There is no 45-degree blade option with the drag knife cutters, but that is the recommended blade on the tangential models for flex cutting, especially thicker materials. Probably pushing the D160 a bit too far with this application and tangential cutter or a flatbed cutter would be better options for getting more consistent results.

All that said, I usually set the flex pressure around 70-80 grams less than the full pressure, so you could try increasing the flex pressure a bit to help the graphics punch out a bit easier. You could also reduce your gap width(full length) and your tab width(flex length) as long as the tabs aren't too small and cause the shapes to fall out while the cutter is still cutting the rest of the shapes(that will cause the material to bunch up in the machine and not track properly).

Best regards,

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

 

[devdev]

Didn't want to leave this thread with no responses.

I always suggest forgoing the FLexCut and just doing "regular" cuts. If you have the cut dialed in close, the adhesive will actually still hold most things together enough that they don't fall out in away that's detrimental to cutting, but enough that you can "pop" them out easily at a work table.

We have done this in the past but it has been inconsistent and we cannot seem to find the perfect in between. We either have to work really hard at the work table popping and cutting the decals out or the decals fall out and the media gets caught in the pinch wheels (causing a bit of unnecessary mess, chaos, and stress in the shop).

I usually set the flex pressure around 70-80 grams less than the full pressure

This takes the cake! These are the numbers we needed.

so you could try increasing the flex pressure a bit to help the graphics punch out a bit easier. You could also reduce your gap width(full length) and your tab width(flex length)

This also helped a ton. Really appreciate your knowledge. Now we need to get a 10,000 decal order to really put it to work.

 

[bigben]

I also have a D160 and making diecut is a struggle. Currently looking at the new S3 with tangential. Just waiting for the right job to pay it off.

 

[devdev]

I also have a D160 and making diecut is a struggle.

The advice above really helped us out! Are you trying to through cut to shape? Or just kiss cut? We rarely see square decals at our shop, so we usually kiss cut the custom shape out, and do a "weeding" pass (path, contour, idk what it would be called) which adds a cut contour square around the decal for our through cuts.

Currently looking at the new S3 with tangential. Just waiting for the right job to pay it off.

I feel this big time! It's in the list of new equipment (somewhere) I keep requesting lol

 

[PHILJOHNSON]

Didn't want to leave this thread with no responses.

We have done this in the past but it has been inconsistent and we cannot seem to find the perfect in between. We either have to work really hard at the work table popping and cutting the decals out or the decals fall out and the media gets caught in the pinch wheels (causing a bit of unnecessary mess, chaos, and stress in the shop).

This takes the cake! These are the numbers we needed.

This also helped a ton. Really appreciate your knowledge. Now we need to get a 10,000 decal order to really put it to work.

Good to hear that those adjustments got things dialed in better for you! Feel free to contact me anytime if there is anything else I can do to help and hopefully you score a big 10,000 plus decal order soon.

Best regards,

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