Summa F1612 Wallpaper

[Peter Brady]

Hi everyone,

We're a wallpaper shop and are considering a F1612 to cut our wallpapers (butt joints). We're looking at this or the Fotoba XLD 170 WP, but the Summa is a lot more versatile of a cutter.

That being said, we would like to first make sure that it does what we currently need and then use it to expand in other areas. What was your experience with it and wallpaper?

They have so many tools available, which one would you consider best for cutting wallpaper? (we use either non woven / textile backings ranging from 350 - 470 gsm)

Thank you,
Val

 

[FrankW]

For Wallpapers, the Fotoba is the better choice.

 

[CanuckSigns]

I agree, I you are just looking at cutting wallpaper into panels, the fotaba makes more sense, the summa will do it fine, but it won't be as fast.

However if you have a need for any of the summa other features (routering, kiss cutting decals etc.) It may tilt the scales.

How many rolls of wall paper are you cutting in a week?

 

[Pauly]

Depends how many you do a week/day.

If it's volume, the Fotoba will win hands down.

 

[Mike Perth]

Hi Val,
We’re a wallpaper only Team and have now had a F1612 for 2 months and are loving it. We cut to butt join with the kiss cut tool and our wps are generally all different in width and height. As said above, it’s not fast but is super accurate. Already we have no idea how we coped without it. We also use it to make our postage boxes.

 

[Peter Brady]

Hi guys,

Thanks a lot for all your answers, they're extremely helpful. We've had a really bad experience with a Flexa Miura Wallpaper unit that we have now returned and have done tests on both Fotoba and Summa (just today). And the human error component of the Fotoba (placing the slitter blades at an exact width) is worrying us more than the loss of speed on the Summa. We've just started for a year now, so the difference in cutting speed is a deal breaker for short / mid term at least.

It's quite fascinating to watch it cut perfectly all the time. We've had a 0.1 mm cut line and it cut right smack on the middle all the time and from our experience with the Fotoba demo, that is not doable with it. It also helps if the material is a bit warped, it compensates better than the Fotoba we find.

Do you guys remember what the shipping dimensions were for the F1612? We have a really tight space leading up to our production room and wanted to see if it will fit as is or we have to tilt it by 90 degrees.

 

[CanuckSigns]

The summa arrives in a huge crate, it's basically assembled already, you need a forklift with at least 6 foot long forks to get it off the truck! I don't see any way you could tilt it, we had 4 guys just to roll it In to place in movers trollys.

 

[balstestrat]

Who ever is selling it to you should supply the site prep documents to you with all the info necessary.
Comes in the crate but you can take it out of the crate outside. Then it's just the size of the machine.

DIMENSIONS

92.5 x 76.3in

 

[Pauly]

Hi guys,

Thanks a lot for all your answers, they're extremely helpful. We've had a really bad experience with a Flexa Miura Wallpaper unit that we have now returned and have done tests on both Fotoba and Summa (just today). And the human error component of the Fotoba (placing the slitter blades at an exact width) is worrying us more than the loss of speed on the Summa. We've just started for a year now, so the difference in cutting speed is a deal breaker for short / mid term at least.

It's quite fascinating to watch it cut perfectly all the time. We've had a 0.1 mm cut line and it cut right smack on the middle all the time and from our experience with the Fotoba demo, that is not doable with it. It also helps if the material is a bit warped, it compensates better than the Fotoba we find.

Do you guys remember what the shipping dimensions were for the F1612? We have a really tight space leading up to our production room and wanted to see if it will fit as is or we have to tilt it by 90 degrees.

I cannot speak for flexa, but have heard good stuff about the Miura.
We run a fotoba XLD170HS.

It cuts very accurate.
If you simply put outlines around the print (done in the RIP) or even crop or registration marks.
You line up the slitters with the lines + your bleed (2-3mm is all you need)

A XY Cutter (fotoba, Miura etc) are only quicker when running the same size job multiple times. Or at least the same width (so you don't need to adjust the slitters every time)
If i do a whole roll of wallpaper, chances are all the panels are the same width. Maybe the last one for the job could be smaller.
So if there's 6 panels and one is not as wide. We'd print them off. Tell the fotoba to cut 5x. it'll stop right after the 5th. Adjust the slitter. Cut the next one.

.....If you are seriously doing volumes and have the money burning a hole in your pocket. The fotoba XLA is fully automated.

 

[PHILJOHNSON]

Hi guys,

Thanks a lot for all your answers, they're extremely helpful. We've had a really bad experience with a Flexa Miura Wallpaper unit that we have now returned and have done tests on both Fotoba and Summa (just today). And the human error component of the Fotoba (placing the slitter blades at an exact width) is worrying us more than the loss of speed on the Summa. We've just started for a year now, so the difference in cutting speed is a deal breaker for short / mid term at least.

It's quite fascinating to watch it cut perfectly all the time. We've had a 0.1 mm cut line and it cut right smack on the middle all the time and from our experience with the Fotoba demo, that is not doable with it. It also helps if the material is a bit warped, it compensates better than the Fotoba we find.

Do you guys remember what the shipping dimensions were for the F1612? We have a really tight space leading up to our production room and wanted to see if it will fit as is or we have to tilt it by 90 degrees.

Good morning,

The packed dimensions of the F1612 crate are 106"x88"x50" and weighs just over 2,000 lbs. when packed with the tools and modules. Assembled dimensions for the F1612 are 94" wide by 78" long and 44" tall if you get the system without the router(as I assume you will be if you're only cutting wallpaper). The tilting procedure requires a minimum door height of 85" and 44" wide in order to get the equipment through the door when tilted. Keep in mind that the tilting procedure does require the use of the tilting jig kit, which is generally something that would need to be purchased. Some vendors charge for the labor, some don't(we generally don't when the tilting kit is purchased) but you may want to factor a bit of extra cost for the tilt if you end up needing to do that.

Please let me know if we might be able to be a resource and answer any other questions that you might have about the Summa flatbeds and we would be happy to help.

Best regards,

Phil Johnson
Airmark Corporation
(800)527-7778, ext. 112
philj@airmark.com

 

[Peter Brady]

Good morning,

The packed dimensions of the F1612 crate are 106"x88"x50" and weighs just over 2,000 lbs. when packed with the tools and modules. Assembled dimensions for the F1612 are 94" wide by 78" long and 44" tall if you get the system without the router(as I assume you will be if you're only cutting wallpaper). The tilting procedure requires a minimum door height of 85" and 44" wide in order to get the equipment through the door when tilted. Keep in mind that the tilting procedure does require the use of the tilting jig kit, which is generally something that would need to be purchased. Some vendors charge for the labor, some don't(we generally don't when the tilting kit is purchased) but you may want to factor a bit of extra cost for the tilt if you end up needing to do that.

Please let me know if we might be able to be a resource and answer any other questions that you might have about the Summa flatbeds and we would be happy to help.

Best regards,

Phil Johnson
Airmark Corporation
(800)527-7778, ext. 112
philj@airmark.com

Hi Phil,

Thank you for your detailed answer, it really helps. We are located in Europe, so we will have to resort to working with someone else

 

[Batista]

I cannot speak for flexa, but have heard good stuff about the Miura.
We run a fotoba XLD170HS.

It cuts very accurate.
If you simply put outlines around the print (done in the RIP) or even crop or registration marks.
You line up the slitters with the lines + your bleed (2-3mm is all you need)

A XY Cutter (fotoba, Miura etc) are only quicker when running the same size job multiple times. Or at least the same width (so you don't need to adjust the slitters every time)
If i do a whole roll of wallpaper, chances are all the panels are the same width. Maybe the last one for the job could be smaller.
So if there's 6 panels and one is not as wide. We'd print them off. Tell the fotoba to cut 5x. it'll stop right after the 5th. Adjust the slitter. Cut the next one.

.....If you are seriously doing volumes and have the money burning a hole in your pocket. The fotoba XLA is fully automated.

Hi Pauly!

Sorry to bump this thread. We bought an XLA-170, and was installed last week. We have been talking with Colex and Fotoba, and most of their support has been useless. I get it, it's a new machine, and the second sold here in the states and Onyx 21.1 doesn't fully support it. Onyx is doing a beta 21.5 fixing most of the ASP issues. Caldera in another hand it's working flawlessly. In both options, the cut is off, even though the "calibration" looks good in real tests it's cutting a side more than the order (near the keypad) like 3-4mm instead 2mm.

While I get a response from Colex or Fotoba, can you tell me how do you calibrate your XLD? Do you have a test file for calibration?

Thanks,
Gabriel

 

[Pauly]

Hi Pauly!

Sorry to bump this thread. We bought an XLA-170, and was installed last week. We have been talking with Colex and Fotoba, and most of their support has been useless. I get it, it's a new machine, and the second sold here in the states and Onyx 21.1 doesn't fully support it. Onyx is doing a beta 21.5 fixing most of the ASP issues. Caldera in another hand it's working flawlessly. In both options, the cut is off, even though the "calibration" looks good in real tests it's cutting a side more than the order (near the keypad) like 3-4mm instead 2mm.

While I get a response from Colex or Fotoba, can you tell me how do you calibrate your XLD? Do you have a test file for calibration?

Thanks,
Gabriel

Im not sure what you mean by calibrate.
But when they installed ours, they tech asked what bleed we use. i told him 3mm. And we set the horizontal cut to 3mm and i've left it at that.

In onyx, i know in the fotoba settings, you press placement, change it to fotoba. Press the gear/settings icon next to it and in the options tab you select your fotoba model, in your case the XLA.
Thats as much as i know.

Im pretty sure you should have gotten a manual, i would suggest going though that.

Sorry i can't be further of help.

 

[Batista]

I want to update my last post i had this in my To-Do's list. It wasn't a calibration issue but a Onyx issue. They had to program a special patch for the Fotoba XLA. After that we have been using the XLA everyday. We got a great support from Ed (Colex) and many weekly updates from Fotoba (Co-owner and Engineers).

 

[StarzakP]

Hi Val,
We’re a wallpaper only Team and have now had a F1612 for 2 months and are loving it. We cut to butt join with the kiss cut tool and our wps are generally all different in width and height. As said above, it’s not fast but is super accurate. Already we have no idea how we coped without it. We also use it to make our postage boxes.

Hi Mike. I just came across your post. We do not do wide format currently but a good customer of ours asked if we can do photo wallpapers for them. They hope to sell larger quantities but who knows if it works.
I’m thinking to build a very simple and cheap setup just to start and test how it all goes. I would buy used HP L360 but the problem is cutting. I understand that wallpaper needs to be cut very precisely(?), or perhaps it does not matter that much if you print with overlap because the final cut is made on the wall after application?
Can I ask what you were using before you bought your F1612?
Any suggestions how to start without spending a fortune?
Many thanks.

 

[Mike Perth]

Hi Mike. I just came across your post. We do not do wide format currently but a good customer of ours asked if we can do photo wallpapers for them. They hope to sell larger quantities but who knows if it works.
I’m thinking to build a very simple and cheap setup just to start and test how it all goes. I would buy used HP L360 but the problem is cutting. I understand that wallpaper needs to be cut very precisely(?), or perhaps it does not matter that much if you print with overlap because the final cut is made on the wall after application?
Can I ask what you were using before you bought your F1612?
Any suggestions how to start without spending a fortune?
Many thanks.

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