Benefits of rolling bed / conveyer for CNC machine

[PrintItBig]

Hi,

We're looking at flat bed cutters and trying to work out if a rolling bed option is something we need or want to spend the extra money on.

We'll use the cutter for Foam PVC, Acrylic, Dibond and the other usual materials but we also do a fair amount of posters, banners etc and it would be great to be able to cut rolls of these down in an automatic / semi automatic fashion.

Question for those of you that have experience of these types of machines...

- I assume that even with some kind of catching device / basket the machine would still need to be supervised and the posters removed from the basket or you'd end up with a tangled mess of offcuts and banners?

- If it still needs to be supervised and the cut items removed by hand from the catch basket why not just save the money and manually roll whatever is being cut onto the table, let the machine do it's thing, remove the cut material then repeat?

- For those who have used a rolling bed, is it beneficial beyond the above? Please explain?

Thanks.

 

[PrintItBig]

Anyone have an opinion on this?

 

[darby07]

I'm presuming you guys aren't looking for a traditional CNC cutter? Perhaps something like a Colex sharp cut?
Wouldn't it just make more sense to buy a mimaki plotter or some other machine for contour cutting banners, poster, etc? You could probably buy a used one for a hell of a lot cheaper than a flatbed cutter. As far as cutting dibond, EPVC, acrylic, etc… the rolling bed/conveyer is pointless and would probably just slow you down and cause registration nightmares.

Sorry I answered your question with even more questions! As sarcastic or rhetorical as they may be

 

[PrintItBig]

Thanks for the reply. I was feeling a bit lonely there for a while.

Strangely enough, the Colex Sharpcut is the machine we're most interested in (or possibly an F series Summa).

But the Colex comes either as a static bed model or with a conveyer bed. We've demoed the static bed but a rolling bed version isn't available for us to view. So I'm just trying to figure out if the rolling bed option (£15K) is worth it for what we want to do.

I assume on the Zund machines the rolling bed is very popular? Does this cause registration issues on those machines?

Correct me if I'm wrong but I assume cutting down rolls of posters or banners with a plotter won't be possible considering they're not kiss cut?

 

[DIGIXTRA]

Thanks for the reply. I was feeling a bit lonely there for a while.

Strangely enough, the Colex Sharpcut is the machine we're most interested in (or possibly an F series Summa).

But the Colex comes either as a static bed model or with a conveyer bed. We've demoed the static bed but a rolling bed version isn't available for us to view. So I'm just trying to figure out if the rolling bed option (£15K) is worth it for what we want to do.

I assume on the Zund machines the rolling bed is very popular? Does this cause registration issues on those machines?

Correct me if I'm wrong but I assume cutting down rolls of posters or banners with a plotter won't be possible considering they're not kiss cut?

In my opinion...unless you are in big production then this cutter worths the money or else manual cutting make more cent ) .. In order for the CNC to cut you have to create file with marks that the camera can pickup. These marks will take up more space hence more waste in material use...
- more time needed to create the file with registration marks and CNC cut file
- more time and material needed to print the graphics with those marks.
- time to program the cnc and for the camera to pickup the position of the graphics on the table.
My 2 cents..

 

[jasonx]

In my opinion...unless you are in big production then this cutter worths the money or else manual cutting make more cent ) .. In order for the CNC to cut you have to create file with marks that the camera can pickup. These marks will take up more space hence more waste in material use...
- more time needed to create the file with registration marks and CNC cut file
- more time and material needed to print the graphics with those marks.
- time to program the cnc and for the camera to pickup the position of the graphics on the table.
My 2 cents..

We have a Zund G3 with all the bells and whistles and the Prepare-It software. All these marks you speak of are automatically created and print files are sent directly to the RIP and the cutting data is automatically sent to the machine. Each job has a barcode which is generated which allows the cutting operator to quickly load the cutting file from withing the Zund Cutting Software. It also automatically nests multiple jobs which are on the same material to actually save material. Example circle shapes are treated like circles and not a square so they are nested to save media and thus also reduce print time you speak of.

Cutting machines are cutting machines but companies like Zund provide end to end workflows with their machines.

We use our conveyor belt tones from cutting posters, to banners, to small format digitally printed A3 sheets, to stickers.

The belt also helps get pieces off the bed and rolled onto a stationary table.

Our Zund is the best investment we've ever made. Reliable, repeatable and easy.

 

[PrintItBig]

In my opinion...unless you are in big production then this cutter worths the money or else manual cutting make more cent ) .. In order for the CNC to cut you have to create file with marks that the camera can pickup. These marks will take up more space hence more waste in material use...
- more time needed to create the file with registration marks and CNC cut file
- more time and material needed to print the graphics with those marks.
- time to program the cnc and for the camera to pickup the position of the graphics on the table.
My 2 cents..

Sorry not sure I understand. Do you mean the Colex with conveyer is worth the money or not worth the money?

 

[PrintItBig]

We have a Zund G3 with all the bells and whistles and the Prepare-It software. All these marks you speak of are automatically created and print files are sent directly to the RIP and the cutting data is automatically sent to the machine. Each job has a barcode which is generated which allows the cutting operator to quickly load the cutting file from withing the Zund Cutting Software. It also automatically nests multiple jobs which are on the same material to actually save material. Example circle shapes are treated like circles and not a square so they are nested to save media and thus also reduce print time you speak of.

Cutting machines are cutting machines but companies like Zund provide end to end workflows with their machines.

We use our conveyor belt tones from cutting posters, to banners, to small format digitally printed A3 sheets, to stickers.

The belt also helps get pieces off the bed and rolled onto a stationary table.

Our Zund is the best investment we've ever made. Reliable, repeatable and easy.

Hi Jason, we've love a Zund but as you know we're also looking at printers and both bits of kit together would take it over our budget so we're looking for cheaper options.

So with the Zund, if you're producing a load of square panels for a client, who's supplied a PDF with crop marks and bleed, do you add the cut path in Prepare-It or in the Rip software? Do you actually draw the path manually or is there a way of selecting the artwork dimensions then minus off the bleed?

Also, how do you deal with cutting down rolls of flexible material like banners or posters? Does the machine just dump the cut items and offcuts in a basket at the end or do you collect as you cut?

Thanks.