Trends in Cutting and Routing in Wide-Format

As the number of applications, substrates, and print methods continue to increase, digital wide-format output is seeing a surge in required finishing. With soft signage, hard board and plastics, and polypropylene alternatives to PVC, today’s customers have more choices than ever when it comes to printing materials. The installed base of roll-to-roll and flatbed wide-format printers has been increasing steadily, and these printed materials need to be framed, mounted, contour cut, and routed. In fact, without continuous, significant increases in cutting capacity, material versatility, speed, and material handling automation, continued investments in faster and wider printers may prove fruitless, eventually eroding growth and profits. Finishing is not an option, but a must for digital printing to march forward.

With such a diverse range of digital printing equipment, there are many cutter and finishing decisions to make. There are a wide range of roll cutters and flatbed cutters/routers with various cutting heads available, so end users must consider what types of products they are hoping to make. Since each system has a different workflow, automation and the physical handling of products must also be taken into account. Finishing will typically have cutting, mounting, and display components. Printed materials often need to be displayed, but the soft and hardboard media types have different mounting considerations. Often, the value of finishing can provide a significantly higher return than the print itself, and as printed materials get wider and longer, manual finishing methods are becoming woefully inadequate to meet acceptable costs and deadlines.

Moving forward the top trends of 2016 in routing and cutting revolve around three key areas including: the increased importance of continuous feed, rise in extra-large cutting tables, and new developments in supported materials.

The sheer number of industry placements, particularly in the flatbed printer market, has generated growth for roll and flatbed cutters alike. Sales of latex and UV hybrid & flatbed printers increased to record levels during 2014. According to HP, unit placements of latex wide-format printers increased 35 percent between 2013 and 2014. Furthermore, InfoTrends’ most recent wide-format forecast reports that placements of UV wide-format printers have grown nearly 20 percent.

As many PSP providers operate and thrive by offering short delivery times, it is critical that the finishing processes (e.g., cutting or routing) do not become major bottlenecks that delay delivery and invoicing. With the use of more complex shapes (contours), the actual cutting and finishing times often exceed the printing times—especially for smaller POP graphics or thicker materials. The key to print vs. cutting time is understanding that printing is a “scanning” process where more print nozzles and heads will increase speed. Meanwhile, cutting is a method of narrow path processing—where the speed is directly linked to the complexity of the cut path, material thickness, type of machine, and very importantly the cutting system’s true acceleration and speed.

Mid-sized print service providers are feeling the pinch because smaller shops are sapping their business. The trend is that shops are replacing multiple smaller printers with high-volume wide-format durable printing devices, and this will likely continue as time goes on. In response to this trend, some medium-sized shops are expanding their business areas. As these shops get bigger, they are exploring solutions to improve their workflows. For example, shops that have historically handled flexible imaging are now going after rigid material printing. This is a logical growth continuum. Fabric is one of the largest growth drivers in signage and exhibit graphics. Finishing must be highly flexible to accommodate the necessary workflow requirements. Wider materials almost force the addition of automated cutting due to size and throughput requirements. Cleanliness and accuracy must also be considered when determining the minimum workflow requirement.

Improving the Bottleneck

Continuous feed routers & cutters are becoming ever important in the digital finishing space. Speed is the number one bottleneck for finishing devices, in both roll-to-roll and flatbed, and new solutions are being introduced by a number of vendors. Roll feeders are one way flatbed machines are increasing production speeds. In recent Esko’s Kongsberg C is one such flatbed cutter able to be fitted with a roll feeder which can drastically increase finishing speeds. On the other end Zünd have been increasing cutting speeds on their two cutting systems the G3 & S3 by creating automated conveyor tabletops, capable of feeding various substrates through faster than previous stationary vacuum based flatbed surfaces.

Esko Kongsberg and Zünd have been selling into the U.S. market since about 2004 and 2001 respectively, and have the largest number of flatbed cutter placements in the market by far. Over the past few years, new vendors like Aristo & MCT (Mikkelsen Converting Technology (through a relationship with Blackman & White), also a long-term provider of specialized fabric cutters for many years) have entered the market with some unique advantages for cutting textiles. Of these manufacturers, only MCT solutions are manufactured in the United States. Onset X3, Durst UV Flatbeds, EFI Reggiani Textile Printers, and other high-speed platforms are on the very high end of the printing spectrum, driving huge printed volumes.

Extra-Large Solutions & Benefits

With the continued increase in new wide-format printer adoptions, the amount and size of many PSP’s outputs are growing. These larger and more complex prints require exactly that in routing and cutting devices, larger cutting surfaces and more complex contours. The flatbed router/cutter segment is becoming an important new growth area in the wide-format printing market. InfoTrends expects this trend to continue well into the future, largely due to the growing population of wide-format UV flatbed printers. Today’s board printing devices are growing in size, this increased workable area enables the user to continually feed boards to the flatbed cutter/router without waiting to queue up the next board. Though this is not as seamless as a continuous feed system, substrates that are too large or delicate for a continuous system are able to be queued with no downtime between finishing.

Based on InfoTrends’ tracker study, the market penetration of vinyl cutters and printers with built-in cutters was nearly 85 percent in 2014. Meanwhile, high-end flatbed cutter penetration is estimated at roughly 15 percent, representing an opportunity for dealers selling equipment and for print service providers that offer cutting and finishing services.

Although the a trend is forming towards larger flatbed router/cutters it is crucial to recognize that low-end roll-to-roll contour cutters account for the largest segment of the market by far. A number of roll-to-roll media cutters are currently available on the market. Two top products in this space are the Italian-made Flexa SRL and the Mimaki Contour Cutters. Graphtec and Mutoh also make contour cutters that are competitive in terms of price and features.. Roland DG, Summa, and GCC also offer competitive contour cutters and smaller scale cutting tables.

Roland was the first vendor to incorporate the cutter into their digital wide-format printers, which ensured their top position in the space. Roland currently leads with the largest install base in the integrated print/cut sector. Mimaki has been a longtime supplier of contour cutters and is an original patent holder. The company began including a cutter in its CJV Series printers about 5 years ago in response to the success of Roland’s print/cut wide-format printers.

Developments of New Applications

Looking beyond traditional substrates, there are opportunities rising in the cutting and milling of specialty and industrial materials. Cutters with special handling for dye sublimation materials are now in demand. Laser cutting heads are needed to properly cut polyester media and simultaneously seal the edges to avoid materials from fraying. Cutters for applications like aluminum, steel, and polycarbonates will be required as demand from industrial markets grows. Demand for special cutting tools will increase as the product population expands. Some vendors are beginning to utilize their knowledge in cutting and routing to expand into more niche markets including 3D milling. Roland has a whole range of desktop CNC milling machines from their SRM & MDX series allowing for low cost subtractive rapid prototyping. Roland milling diversification continues further into their dental milling machines. The DWX series of milling machines provide a digital milling solution that can produce crowns, copings, bridges and hybrid abutments. The number of possible applications for cutting, routing, and milling machines is expanding, and as new niche markets are found vendors may find areas where their technologies can provide an edge over the current dominate competitors.

With the diverse range of digital printing equipment available, an increasing number of cutting/finishing choices must be made. Depending on the finished product, users can select from a range of roll cutters, flatbed cutters, and/or routers with various cutting heads. New Technological developments in flatbed and roll-to-roll cutting machines will continue to shorten the gap in speed disparity. In the end the type of finishing machine that is best suited remains dependent on a PSP’s output type, production speed requirements, and growth aspirations