Although the process of CAD cutting printed materials on a
flatbed cutting machine has been around for quite some time; the “art of the
cut” has taken a drastic leap. I think designers are just starting to catch on to
all the cutting capabilities available with the new equipment. Here’s a bit
about CAD cutting:
Let’s start with the machines; of which there are four major
manufactures, each of which have a bit different piece of the market:
* Multicam -
primarily found within acrylic, wood and metal fabrication shops utilizing
router and metal cutting attachments. They have a rather small following within
the graphics industry. It’s rather popular within the sign fabrication industry.
* Kongsberg - This is
an extremely popular cutting table for the folding carton and corrugated design
industry. Their most popular tables have fixed beds; they are the number one
table in the package design community. Parent company is Esko; also furnishes the CAD software, Artios.
* Colex – This is a relatively new entry for small printers
and graphics shops entering the wide format display market. It’s a foreign made
machine, with few features and few tools. I’ve run some work on one and its
designed for the basics. The tool availability, safety features, noise and
place several limits on this machine. It’s an introductory machine and priced
that way too.
* ZUND – Very popular cutting system made in Switzerland.
The tooling head and cutting blade availability is outstanding. Plus ZUND
supports the user with tons of profiles for cutting various and difficult
substrates. This is perhaps the most popular machine for graphics and wide
format suppliers. Like Kongsberg, ZUND are very well made pieces of equipment.
I’ll be focusing this post on the capabilities generally available using ZUND
equipment.
(click to enlarge)
The above image shows
a ZUND table setup for cutting tear drop shaped banner flags prior to sewing.
On this smaller ZUND model there is a feed roller on the
bottom that aligns the printed roll prior to its entry onto the table. This model
utilizes a roll feed table rather than a fixed table; and enables the machine
to feed the fabric. The tooling requirements for this substrate would be a
blade rather than a router. During each cut an electric eye seeks a printed
register target on the substrate, aligns the cutter head to the electronic
pattern and performs the cut.
NOTE to designers: When a file is submitted to a vendor for
cutting/trimming, it needs to be a vector file and the “path needs to be
completely closed from start to finish”. Paths that stop and start can cause the
cutting result to be rough and uneven. Cutting files are normally setup as a
separate layer and the path is normally colored to quickly identify it. The
vendor will add optical targets to the print file that will image outside the
live area.
(click to enlarge)
Here is a close up of the tooling heads. Both tools are
interchangeable; these heads happen to be knives rather than spinning routers.
The head on the right has a simple attachment to keep the substrate from
popping up during an “up and down” cutting process; there is a spring inside.
The center hole you see in the image contains the electric register eye.
(click to enlarge)
Yellow star: The above picture shows the vertical alignment
rod which allows the tool to slide up and down during the machining process.
Purple star: The black drive belt allows the tool to twist
and properly follow the machining path.
Red star: The
electric eye housing.
Blue star: This is the locking collar that holds
the tool in place.
(click to enlarge)
For routing and similar processes or substrates that create
dust and particles, the vacuum attachment removes the waste material in and
around the cutting area.
This is a good example of how the proper tool can cleanly
cut a difficult material. All materials cut differently; selecting the right
tool and cutting bit, adjust for the optimum speed and cutting profile and
operator experience will greatly improve the quality of your job. Lots of
materials require multiple passes at different depths. Experience and operator
skill are critical for successful cutting of challenging substrates.
(click to enlarge)
In this image, a unique box shape is being engineered. Note
the scoring wheel tool on the right side of the machine head.
Fancy engineered
direct mail piece
(click to enlarge)
Google’s popular
voting paddles from 3mm Sintra (image courtesy of Christopher Wong).
(click to enlarge)
This is ZUND’s latest innovation; a cutting system
especially designed for short run folding cartons and folding board substrates.
With an infeed system and basic delivery, short run projects can be produced
without the expense and additional time requirements of conventional steel rule cutting
dies.
The above image shows how a cutting system can accurately
and cleanly cut ½” or ¾” graphic board.
(click to enlarge)
This acrylic logo sign was cut on a Multicam using a router
bit. Clear acrylic was printed on the reverse (yellow) prior to cutting.
The printed sheet was then CAD cut on the Multicam. The black letters were also
cut on the CAD. Once trimmed, the letters were glued to the face of the
acrylic. Stand-offs were added to secure the sign to the wall. (Printed acrylic is designed for interior use only.)
(click to enlarge)
This is a wall of fancy cut packaging samples from Tre Well
of Sweden. I really like the way the projects are showcased.
We’re currently using the ZUND system for the kissing cut of
short run labels produced on the HP Indigo digital press. There are no dies to
make; we can produce complex cutting patterns that aren’t possible using steel
rule dies and the project is controlled completely in-house saving the customer
time and money.
We're also using the ZUND system to produce 4 color corrugated box comps for marketing firms requiring presentation dummies.
(click to enlarge)
The newest ZUND machine software allows the operator to setup a job, align the ZUND to the printed targets and then flop the sheet onto the unprinted side; the machine then re-registers the project using the sheet edges. This is the perfect solution for cutting and scoring pre-printed corrugated from the correct direction.
