What plotter for HP latex with di-cut feature

[David McDonald]

Hi

We have a graphtec fc7000 series and a summa T series plotter. We find the graphtec is slightly more accurate for contour cutting, especially over longer distances (although we calibrated it and haven’t done on the summa) The fc7000 doesn’t have a perf cut feature (later 8000 series do) but our summa handles this fairly well. Perf cutting takes some effort in playing with settings to get it to work – too many cuts and it all falls to pieces, too little and they don’t separate well, and there a million and one permutations of cut length, tab frequency, and tab length. Also you really need to watch over anything perf cutting, the vinyl doesn’t always fold backwards and forwards into the basket or onto the floor and ‘kinks’ very easily and can then jam under the knife and pinch rollers.

The summa is better for the thick stuff though – at max pressure it seems like it would cut anything! Our summa recognises the bar code printed with onyx rip so it will cut one contour, find and read the next bar code on the next print then carry on cutting – in theory the whole roll. (Again the later graphtec may have this feature). The tangential knife on the summa also gives a better cut on small detail on anything thicker than regular vinyl/lam.

Overall both are the best brands going, and either will really do what you want.

Chees
Macky

[George Zerbino]

I’ve used a Summa D160 alongside my L25500 for nearly 4 years now, almost perfect results every time.

I say almost as some materials work better than others, the cheaper vinyls (usually monomerics) tend to mis-register print to cut more than the better vinyls.

Overall I would recommend the Summa, had 3 of them over the years as well as Gerbers (again highly recommended) and Roland (not overly impressed but did the job).

Regards,
George

[Andrew Edwards]

Summas are more accurate Vs Graphtec in a side by side comparison assuming BOTH are calibrated 😉

However the key difference is OPOS XY.

Latex applies more heat than other printers and can cause a few mms of bowing on the front of your SAV – invisible but if you are doing print & cut of small labels with no overlap you can find some misregistration.

Summa solves this with OPOS XY – the rip will print a long black line at the front of the print between the first two reg marks. The Summa will then take extra readings along this line to look for and adjust the cut if there is any bowing.

Only Summas do this and anyone buying Latex should take note of this important aid to accurate registration.

[Chris Wool]

i can’t comment on a summa other than it should be good its dear enough.

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The fc7000 doesn’t have a perf cut feature

my fc7000 does ??

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Something that also pics up the registration on long prints, 3m +.

the xc540 should when it stops looking at 3mts press the pause key, it should continue. thank shane from down under for that one.

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We also make m/x graphics. We would like a new plotter which will enable us to di-cut the stickers to save hand trimming time.

any roll plotter will be a pain for predicable consistant results use a flat bed cutter. we do

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reading registration marks for small sticker cut accuracy after lamination

never been able to better roland for this its all in the setup. over a say 2ft sq area should be able to cut down a printed hairline.

all based on own experiences