Tables of Content: Cutting and Routing Systems Go Beyond Cutting

Flatbed printing today is about more than simply ink-on-substrate and more about creating unique products—or, as we like to call them, “applications.” However, to create many of these new applications, the printer itself may only get you part of the way to where you need to go. The real value—and this is not unique to wide-format graphics—is often added in finishing. In this case, cutters and routers.

“Investing in a flatbed cutter increases productivity, but more importantly allows the shop to accept a larger array of jobs,” said Maureen Damato, Dealer Account Manager for Colex. Colex offers the Sharpcut and Sharpcut Conveyor lines of flatbed cutting tables.

Commercial printers are no strangers to the traditional guillotine or three-knife cutters and many wide-format graphics producers know well the vinyl (aka x/y) cutters used for vinyl and other roll-to-roll materials. But for users who need to cut and finish less flexible materials, there are two options. One is to get a skilled employee (or several) to cut them by hand, which is still a very common—if laborious and time-consuming—practice. The other is to invest in a cutting table.

Cutting tables for wide-format finishing are about more than cutting, and the term “cutting table” itself is a deceptive and limiting term. These tables are more akin to manufacturing systems.

Tooling Around

In its most basic configuration, a cutting table features a knife that is capable of cutting through thick materials like board, plastics, wood, and other materials. Some at the lower end of the spectrum can only make rectangular cuts, while some can automatically and rapidly cut contours, some quite detailed and intricate.

As any chef can tell you, there are different knives for different types of cuts. If you go to Esko’s online store, for example, there are more than 100 different blades available for the Kongsberg line of cutting tables, including single-edge flat blades, serrated blades, double-edge flat and rotary blades, and many more, all designed to cut different materials. For example, if you are going to want intricate contour cutting, a thin small knife will be better able to get around small curves or corners. On the other hand, if you are cutting a thick piece of wood or acrylic, you’re going to need something more robust.

Even with hundreds of blades, a knife is not enough these days, and most cutting tables offer other tools. One of the most common is a “router,” a tool used to hollow out bits of wood, board, plastic, or other surface. Routers are commonly used in carpentry to “rout out” areas in wood to attach hinges, knobs, or other accessories. Like blades, you can get router bits (like drill bits) that vary in size and shape. Milling bits, crease wheels and blades, engraving tools, polishing tools, perforating tools—many other tools are available for today’s cutters. Adding new tools expands the number of those applications the company can produce. “[Shops] want the most flexibility,” said Stephen Bennett, Vice President of Sales at Esko, which manufactures the Kongsberg line of cutting tables. Initially, one customer, Bennett said, “just wanted to cut corrugated materials. Now [the table] has been in a couple of months and they’re ordering every tool we’ve got.”

Tables of Contents

The wide variety of tooling available is the result of the need to cut—or otherwise finish—as wide a variety of materials as possible. It’s common to think of cutting tables as suitable for only thick boards, but these tables can be used for virtually any material, from paper, to leather, to vinyl, even to textiles. “Versatility is the word right now,” said Bennett. “[Shops] don’t know what they’re going to print from day to day. They want the most flexibility.”

“Having both a knife and a router allows you to cut a larger range of media,” said Damato. Colex’s Sharpcut Cutter offers a Triple Interchangeable Tool Head with knife cutting and routing capabilities. “This allows the Sharpcut to be used in a wide range of industries including signage, packaging, and textiles.”

Textile printing is all the rage, and these cutting tables are also suitable for textile cutting—with some caveats. “They need enough width, since textiles tend to be wide, and they need length, so there is enough room for the entire piece to lay out so they can cut it in one go,” said Bennett. “And they need the right tool to cut it, basically a self-sharpening rotoblade or even possibly a laser.”

Yes, you can get laser cutters to cut textiles—as well as other materials—but at the moment it’s a costly option that may not be justified by the volume of work you are doing or what you can charge for it.

Armed Forces

In addition to versatility, automation is the other driver of cutting table advancements. “People are looking for more productive, easier to use, and more automated cutting systems,” said Beatrice Drury, Director of Marketing and Communications at Zünd America. Zünd offers the G3 and S3 Digital Cutter systems.

Cutting tables aren’t run inline with printing equipment, but they can come close. It’s software that enables much of cutting table automation, a process that starts at the RIP even before printing. During prepress, the finishing parameters can be set which generates the cut file that contains all the salient information the cutter needs to finish the job: final trim dimensions, if there is contour cutting involved, what specific tools are required, and so forth. Information in the cut file is embedded in a bar or QR code that is added during printing. The table scans the code which then controls the cut head and other tools. This control is the function of the table’s software, and each table manufacturer has its own software which is compatible with the majority of RIPs used for wide-format printing. Cut files can also be used for repeat jobs.

Some tables can also change the tooling automatically. Zünd offers an automated bit changer for the company’s digital cutters. “If the customer has a routing option, this device will automatically change the bits if different bits are needed for engraving or polishing,” said Drury. The bit needed for a given job is specified in what is known as the cut file.

Material handling is also target for automation, and automatic roll and sheet/board feeders are becoming de rigueur on today’s cutting tables. Colex’s Sharpcut tables, for example, offer Vision Registration, with which the cutter automatically locates the material on the machine’s bed.

Zünd has attached a robotic arm to offload material from its S3 tables. After cutting, the arm picks up and stacks the finished pieces, and the whole process is controlled via a QR code printed on the sheets, which corresponds to the cut file.

Software can control productivity in more subtle ways. The more images you can gang up and squeeze strategically on a single sheet or board, the more you can print per hour and the fewer sheets you use. And the cut file can instruct the cutting head how to “extract” all the nested images. “That’s what prepress software does today,” said Bennett. “It rotates the images, nests them, makes them really tight. This makes the cutter more effective because if I can reduce the time that the head has to lift and go to the next object and begin cutting again, I’m getting faster cutting times.” It also reduces vibration, and thus wear and tear, on the cutting head.

This Year’s Modules

When talking about cutting tables, how do we define entry-level vs. high-end? In general, those price distinctions are a function of bed size, speed, and the number of tools that are available, “Format size, throughput, and material versatility are the three dimensions of price,” said Bennett.

Entry-level cutters may not be especially robust in their construction. “Many of the entry-level cutters are constructed out of extruded aluminum framing, which limits the strength and durability of the cutter,” said Damato.

Some manufacturers, like Zünd, don’t think of the market in those terms. “There’s no difference per se between an ‘entry-level’ and a fully-configured machine. It’s just the number of options that are included,” said Drury. “The cutter in and of itself is completely modular. You can configure it to very specific needs and pick and choose features depending on what your needs are.”

Tabling the Decision

A cutting table can be a major investment, and one of the basic questions is: what’s the minimum volume a shop should have to justify such an expenditure?

That’s not an easy question to answer for cutting tables or the kinds of shops that are operating them. “People have so many different production environments,” said Drury. “Our customers are anything from franchise operations to large industrial print service providers, to graphics producers.” As a result, “volume” can be a difficult thing to gauge—and in any case, it’s often a case of quality vs. quantity. “Some customers are using [cutting tables] for sample-making, in which case it’s the tool that they need to come up with high-quality samples. That’s independent of their production.”

But while volume may be the wrong metric, Esko’s Bennett offers a general rule of thumb for those on the fence about justifying a table purchase. “We have tools for that that we offer to customers,” said Bennett. “We give them spreadsheets, they can plug their parameters in, and it tells them what the payback is. Typically, about two hours per day of cutting would mean the machine can support itself.”

There are caveats to that, said Bennett. “Take a basic product like a one-and-a-half by two-foot Coroplast yard sign. In two hours, you can cut a whole bunch of them, but because they’re so cheap you don’t get a lot of profit.” Still, the two-hour rule of thumb is a good general guideline. “If you can run it two hours a day, you have a winner.”

Cutting Remarks

The things to watch for and ask about when shopping for a cutting table are, said Damato, “versatility, speed, price, and service.” Added Drury, “First and foremost, modularity is pretty important. You don’t want to limit yourself by buying a lower-end machine that doesn’t let you go anywhere if your needs change.”

And it doesn’t pay to skimp on training. “Training and support are often forgotten,” said Bennett. “[Cutting tables] are not for the occasional user. Unlike a printer, where you can put a sheet through and if it comes out wrong, you can throw it away and try it again, if you ruin a piece on a cutter, you have to go back to the beginning.

“That’s why training, training, training. We really believe that makes a difference.”