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Automated Vinyl weeding machine, your thoughts?
We featured the Galileo automated vinyl weeding machine video five years ago and having just watched it again, I do wonder if it still has a place in our industry today?
I think the price tag was around £30,000 -to- £40,000. And that is a lot of weeding to cover its cost!
I think with all the new optically clear vinyl now available, white ink options, super-fast printing machines and more. does cutting, weeding and taping in this kind of volume make sense? -
20 Replies
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Be interesting to hear from those who use it, if any. As you say it probably isn’t worth it, in fact it probably never was, the weeding time saved will never be recouped because of the sheer cost.
I would like to know how it weeds small lettering (5-6mm) without lifting the letter centres, specially on a lower case ‘e’, something I regularly have a problem with.
But I seem to remember something very similar being trialled about 15-20 years ago which never really took off, can’t remember what it was called though.
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wow! I have never seen anything like this before. actually amazing to think a machine can do the weeding for you! ❤
The price has to be unrealistic, surely?
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If it only weeds out cut vinyl it’s massively overpriced. My one can do all that & cook roast dinners as well. Be a lot more than 40 grand if I ever get rid of it though
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🤣🤣 ye but this machine doesnt moan. Well worth the money
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Think about it mate, that moaning is still gonna happen even if I bought the weeder for £40000. Plus, it can’t answer the phones or go & collect or deliver. I think it’s a clever bit of kit but humans are a lot more use. We won’t go into the other benefits on here either
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Kevin, Martyn. Hillarious! 🤣
Keep in mind that the machine can only do one thing!
We multitask in the workplace and at home.-
Now if only women came with an ON and OFF switch? 😬 🤣
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I think they do mate but it gets disabled when you upgrade your standard model to the one with the wedding ring (I think it’s a software glitch)
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🤣🤣🤣
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🤣🤣
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Not for me, it’s a one trick pony.
I bought our Roland cutter off a guy who bought one of those nexus veloblade cutters, now that is a bit of kit, and the reason for the change it saves him employing someone whilst freeing him up.
I noticed there were no rolls of cad vinyl there, because everything is printed & cut.
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I have not seen the veloblades before, David.
what size did they use and do you know how much they cost?
I think if i ever went for a cutting table like this it would be the Esko Kongsberg or the Summa flatbed. I had a demo at ArtSystem on the Summa about 5 years ago.
even with one of these, I would definitely not eliminate standard cut vinyl colours.
straight away you have ink costs and print time on top of the digital vinyl, and you then still need to contour cut it. if it’s is an external application then you have laminate costs too.That said, it would definitely speed production and finishing and brings another automated “part-staff free” system into place. Which is excellent if you have the volume or work.
I reckon this time next year I will be looking at the Esko or Summa again. Maybe even give Warren a call to see how he is getting on with his Esko as he will have had it a good 18-24 months by then. Just another reason I am looking forward to Sign & Digital UK next year.
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Do you mean the Weeder Sheeter Gordon?
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That could be it, but it was a long time ago now so can’t say for certain. Probably around 2003 – 2005 (ish) if these things were around then.
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yes, this was available back then, mate. this is just a newer looking version.
John child who was a regular and friend of mine from UKSB had one and swore by it. personally, I could see it, but he had a successful business if it worked for him then fair play.
He has since passed away, or I am sure he would be arguing with me again over my comments and views on this. 🤣👍 -
That must be it then, did they catch on do you know?
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What kind of crazy volume of work do some of these companies have that can make use of one of these?! That is some seriously impressive tech! I wonder how often it pulls off an i dot!
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Gordon, I saw them demo’d at Sign & Digital exhibition in the NEC Birmingham.
Once they get them, machine setup and running, it’s a nice idea and works in part, but far from perfect.
The person using it at the show must have done so a million times, over and over, and they still were still appearing clumsy at using it. there are multiple reasons why it wouldn’t work in a general sign company and you would need to be pretty poor at weeding to even consider one.for a start, you have to queue up all your jobs and cut them at once full width of the machine to make the weeder work efficiently. you could argue that you don’t and just cut one line of text and load that in the weeded. one line of text or two even and you would be easier and quicker just using your hand and onto the next job rather than putting it through this clothes mangle type thing. even after you have weeded everything at once. you are still needing to go back over it all and take the centres out by hand. 😏
maybe the weeder mangle will work for some, but i just couldn’t see me or my staff use one in our place.
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With the move by manufactures toward PVC free, this type of technology will become an expensive outdated machine – a ‘cheap’ laser system will be able to cut and remove the waste in one pass, as non PVC will not have the chlorine gas issues!
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You could be right Colin, and as much as I am sure we have the technology readily available today. I cannot see the machine being on the market within the next 5 years. But I would happily welcome one if it surfaced. It would certainly make the likes of the Galileo obsolete!
I was thinking about the weeding machine again…
The galileo is over 5 years old and I can only think that it was created to overcome a problem for a sign manufacturer or whatever, that requires huge volumes of this type of lettering. Therefore when a machine can weed roll to roll no stop. it is replacing a couple of members of staff and your outlay is covered pretty quickly.
I say that because my comment of printing it etc would be an obvious option, but the Galileo was made pretty recently and all the printer options etc were already available. So there must be something we are overlooking or arent giving any thought to that this machine may be the answer to, even today?
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