Which Vinyl Cutter to Buy? Summa S3T160 / Graphtec / HP 64" Cutting Solution

[BecW]

Hi, we are looking at new vinyl cutters at work. Considering the ones in the title. Right now it's between the HP and the summa. The summa is about $10,000 more. Obviously it has true tangential technology VS only drag knife and the HP has tangential emulation only. Upon looking at videos the Summa does seem to be of much higher build quality. But I'm looking for people's opinions on their experience with these machines.

I know a summa will fit seamlessly into our current workflow as we use a very old summa d160r. It's on its way out and having major issues hence the upgrade. FYI We use our vinyl cutter every day. It needs to stand the test of time.

I work at Signarama. So lots of large format printing and cutting for a wide variety of jobs from signboards to stickers to decals to vehicle wraps. You name it everything. Including 3D signs where we need to draw on the pounce paper as a template for installation.

Tangential would be a nice upgrade. But I don't think our current d160R had tangetnial technology, and we've gotten by with running just drag technology for 12 years.

I should also mention the printer we use is a HP Latex 365 with ONYX RIP. So I believe HP vinyl cutter would fit here. However may have a learning curve and change our process, so less seamless for a busy already operating business.

What I'm really looking is;

• Reliability and trust in the machine (parts not breaking often, cutting accuracy)
• Ease of use
• Future proofing. This is a long-term investment.
• Efficiency in the workflow.
• OPOS reading accurately over long runs. Vehicle wraps can have runs anywhere from 3 to 6 metres long at a time. On the cheaper HP I have a feeling there may be issues with long runs like this and we do a lot of them so I'd like to have that reliability. Has anyone used the HP and can tell me if they've had these problems? I did read it somewhere very briefly and it was giving somebody trouble. What sensor does it use? Is it worse or better than OPOS cam?

Please share your experiences with these machines and comparisons if you have any information. It will help us make an informed choice.

Thank you!

 

[balstestrat]

That HP cutter is Summa S One. There's almost no difference at all, same factory, same model just tiny firmware differences.
Unless you get the HP branded one a lot cheaper you might as well get Summa. It's basically the same as your D160 with new design.

But if you want an upgrade, get the S3 tangential one (and I really recommend with the camera, now that's an upgrade!). If you just need a new one, get S One.
Now is it worth 10k (you can 2nd S one for that price) only you can decide. But it is more of a tank inside, not just the head is different.