Finishing Solutions For Wide-format

By Author: Laser Cutters
Total Articles: 7
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With the wide-format inkjet printers, no matter which make or model, the user would always overprint the number of prints. They had to add a percentage on every job; for example, if they had thirty prints to make, they would make 35. This was done to compensate printing, cutting, and trimming problems. It is not uncommon with cutting and trimming by hand for prints to become damaged or cut and trimmed incorrectly. Therefore, if there are not enough additional copies, it then becomes necessary to set up the printer and reprint the job. The extra time for printer set-up and getting it ready is expensive and does reduce the profit expected on the job. The biggest cost is the late delivery and the resulting factor of deadlines not being met. This reduces customer satisfaction and in some cases, the possibility of losing the account. The question, “where is my order?” is not one that any company wants to hear. Late delivery, what does it mean? If RUSH charges are quoted on the job, the customer will refuse to pay them. Not receiving the rush charges can often mean a loss of up to 50% of the expected invoice amount.

At ...
... a recent exhibition the following statement was made by an owner of a high-speed digital printing device, “I cannot bid on the really big jobs because I cannot manually cut and trim the work.” Companies that purchase the HP Turbojet or similar high-speed printers, for many hundreds of thousands of dollars, need to utilize the equipment as much as possible. To justify this type of printer, they need to keep it running, not with small jobs (too much time for preparation) but with large volume work. The problem with this prospect was that printing companies couldn’t hire enough low paid temporary employees to handle cutting and trimming.

Once an Automatic X/Y Cutter is installed, this customer can bid on any job, big or small. It broadens his marketplace, protects profit margins, lowers material waste and meets every deadline. If this type of equipment is added in-line, then one minute after printing the last copy the total job is ready for delivery.

The Fotoba automatic cutter’s accuracy and method of operation reduces the reprinting to zero, completely eliminating any output that was damaged or marked by manual labor cutting. As the images are printed with cut marks along the edge of the image, the XL cutter’s sensors will read its position and shift the cutters to follow the position exactly. As the image position changes, even minutely, the cutter will shift the cutting mechanism to compensate for the shift in image printing position.

Fotoba cutters can handle numerous types of media, including; polycarbonates, laminated and encapsulated media, photo paper, vinyl, banner, sticky back vinyl, PVC, inkjet and electrostatic plotters, graphic art film, display film and much more.

Colex, the exclusive U.S. Distributor for Fotoba, offers finishing solutions for the wide format printers. A wide range of models are available that can handle the cutting and trimming of most wide roll media. Units that can accept up to 130 inch width rolls, operated by one person can cut and trim as fast as several printers can output the printed result.

For more information, please visit our website: www.colex.com or contact Werner Waden at 201-265-5670.