cutting out labels

[Mike Grant]

I use a straight edge and a ruler. Unless you are producing thousands a day I think there was only one machine produced that would cut through the backing sheet. Sorry but I can’t remember the brand, and I haven’t seen it advertised for quite a while.

[Richard Urquhart]

Made some on my Roland print and cut using half cut in Signlab

[Peter Normington]

What software and plotter are you using? some plotters and print and cut machines can now do "half cuts" they kiss cut and then die cut, but leave either a score or tabs so the labels can be separated.

Peter

[Ian Jenkin]

Our Mimaki Cutter is great for kiss cutting, then you can also follow up with a full contour cut.

Incidently, be patient if you take on a new cutting machine… believe me, its painful if you kick it. 😳

[James Langton]

The mimaki’s are good for die cutting.

But the Graphtec fc series are brilliant we went to see one a few weeks back the cutters can be set to perforate the backing paper so you can either just knock them out or even supply them to your customer to be knocked out.

When you compare a Graphtec cutter to a mimaki the graphtecs have more features on them and the build quality it down to the art most of casing and covers are made from metal except the sides.

[Peter Normington]

James I own both graphtec and mimaki,
What features put the graphtec in front of the mimaki?

I know it depends on which model, both are good machines, but I cant think of anything that one can do that the other cant, (ok the mimaki has 2 cutting strips, so die cutting doesn’t wear out the plotting strip and blade)

Peter

[James Langton]

The new graphtecs fc8000 have separate cutting strips but if you set the cutter up properly you don’t need to worry about the strips getting worn.

Peter its just simple things like the size of the lcd panel one feature that I do recall being very efficient is the paperweight on the graphtec it holds down the substrate and basically seals the substrate from any glare from overhead lights which I have found makes registration a lot more accurate. I also find the tracking is a lot better on the graphtec machines.

James

[Peter Normington]

James,
I often do 10+ metre label cut jobs on my Mimaki cg130FX and cannot fault its tracking, what model is yours?

Mimaki also have a "paper hold" Feature and dont suffer from glare either.

Cutting strips are a consumable item on both machines, so they do get worn, just depends on the operator how quickly, same goes for blades.

Peter

[James Langton]

Before I joined a partnership the place I used to work used the CG fx160.
Im not knocking the mimaki’s they are good machines. But when i went to compare the two cutters side by side I felt that the graphtec (fc 7000)Had a little more going for it. One of the things I didnt like was the media basket on the mimaki. I can easily cut 20-30 meters on the graphtec without it over filling the basket and I have once done 46 meters in one go on the graphtec but i wouldn’t wont to try it again.

[Neil Bainbridge]

i am using corel draw x3 and i have a versa camm with versa works

[Jason Xuereb]

I have a versacamm. You can forget the perf cut feature. It works but its shonky mainly because your cutting on the teflon strip. It will work dont get me wrong but if you want to do it often you’ll find you’ll need to adjust your pressure higher as the job goes on.

Now I’ve got two FC8000-160’s and I do what your talking about sometimes. I’ve probably done 700 metres of what your talking about on my graphtecs in the last two months. Doesn’t miss a trick anymore.