First is the Easymatrix, designed for commercial printers looking for entry into the packaging arena, while also suited to small- or medium-sized packaging printers seeking to upgrade or for additional capacity. Also available is the Promatrix, billed as the first step into industrial markets, with cutting, stripping, and blanking possible in one pass. Further automation is included throughout the machine, such as an automatic non-stop feeder option boosting productivity, motorised feeder settings, and pneumatic adjustments of the tooling. Referencing the importance of investment in new kit in this sector, Trengrouse and Bann says this is critical to ensure PSPs not only keep up with direct competitors but ideally keep ahead of them. “Improvements in efficiencies are hard fought for and must be maintained to maximize profitability and sometimes even survival in what is today a highly competitive marketplace,” Trengrouse and Bann say, adding: “Settling for older kit will only give a ‘honeymoon’ period of positive change. Within months or even weeks, that die-cutter that has already been removed by another business is no longer giving you that leap in productivity that you had hoped for. “Advances in modern die-cutting technology significantly impact on production performance, with new innovative features resulting in faster makeready times and higher running speeds therefore an overall increase in output. “You need to ensure that your investment is protecting your business; it must be as close to future-proofing your progression as it can be, a fine balance is needed though, without going too far with features that you may never use but securing all the “must haves” on the new machine, what is best for your market, your customers and essentially what is best for your business and how to futureproof the investment.” These closing comments offer a rather suitable conclusion to this feature: failure to invest or upgrade will ultimately lead to standing still or falling behind in what is a highly competitive marketplace. The good news for PSPs is that there are plenty of die-cutting options available to them, while new solutions are coming to market all the time, bringing with them a host of new features and capabilities that make production easier. 71 May / June 2024 - Issue 348 www.printmonthly.co.uk Additional features include a new controller and expanded graphics interface that allows the user to work directly with provided plugins for Adobe Illustrator and CorelDRAW. In addition, all Intec cutters offer instant job processing when reading a QR code and page marks printed on a sheet. However, with the new FB580, this is no longer necessary thanks to a new reverse side cutting feature. Here, the cutter processes printed jobs, from the rear of the sheet, where there are no QR codes or page marks printed by reading the sheet edges. This, Intec says, produces accurate cutting and creasing and expands the range of media able to be finished. “The FB580 is a highly specified, yet incredibly affordable entry-level digital flatbed” Intec adds. Protect Your Business Elsewhere in the market, print technology giant Heidelberg works in partnership with MK Masterworks to provide die-cutters for each segment of the packaging sector. Solutions from this collaboration range from entry-level to fully industrialised cutters. Among the latest technologies to come from this partnership is the Mastermatrix, which offers one-pass cutting, stripping, and blanking, at a maximum output speed of 9,000sph. Other features include an optional feeder logistic system for automatic pallet changeovers, as well as Masterset for optical sheet alignment which ensures accurate print to cut register, while the camshaft drive ensures smooth transport of sheets throughout the machine. Looking at other solutions from Heidelberg and MK Masterworks, Ian Trengrouse, product manager and business driver for post-press commercial at Heidelberg, and Chris Bann, sales account manager at Heidelberg, offer up several examples. Intec Printing Solutions recently launched its new ColorCut FB580, a B3+ format digital die flatbed cutter/ creaser B3+ ▲Soyang Hardware supplies the entire range of VeloBlade machines in the UK. Pictured: The VeloBlade Nexus 2516 ▼Intec’s ColorCut FB580 offers pressures of up to 1.2kg for both cutting and creasing tools DIE-CUTTING TECHNOLOGIES as synthetic point-of-sale items and kiss-cut adhesive labels/stickers. Billed as an entry-level solution, the device can handle a wide range of materials including folding box board, SBS, SBB, and sheet card paper, rice paper, synthetics and polymers, sheet labels, and vinyl, all in weights up to 600 microns, with a max media area of 440 x 580mm. “Intec brings this very affordable, highly specified digital flatbed cutter into our ColorCut range, targeted at organisations requiring professional die-cutting for on-demand or light production work and prototyping,” Intec marketing manager Terri Winstanley says. “Its compact footprint and new operating system ensure that it can be placed in any environment, for anyone to use. And with the FB580 being our entry-level flatbed table, we are conscious of customers whose business grows and therefore require easy equipment upgrade paths. So, when you purchase a ColorCut cutter it allows for upgrades through the ColorCut model line, with all jobs being fully interchangeable between all the cutters.”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjM0NDIxOA==