Digital kiss cutting

[BigSi]

Hi there.

Re: Kiss cutting labels (odd shapes and round corners)

Does any one have any experience with this brand "BestCut"? Chinese brand. I wouldn't normal go anywhere near something like this but the price is a fraction of what I have seen anywhere else.
I realise there are a heap of vinyl cutters out there but this is the only one I have seen with a feed system. I know Graphtec make one but it is heaps of $$$. If anyone knows of a second hand one let me know.
At the moment short/medium runs I feed by hand through my Roland, (takes for ever). Longer runs Im getting a knife made and doing on my Heidelberg platen.

FYI. I'm printing on a Xerox with optical registration marks.

Your thoughts and input are appreciated.

thanks Simon

 

[Ynot_UK]

@BigSi the product you've linked to isn't a huge difference in price to the Graphtec F-Mark, from what I recall when we considered taking that route back last summer. We ended up taking the plunge and buying a Vivid Veloblade (flatbed) in the end.

Essentially choosing a digital die cutter is about the after sale support rather than the origin of the product (which will be China in almost all cases).
With an electronic product of this nature (as opposed to a mechanical product that any good engineer can figure) you are dependent on dealer knowledge & support. Our experience with Vivid has been great, as their R&D is in the UK, there is a reactive support & maintenance infrastructure in place and the engineers fully understand the guts of the machine.

I fear with some of the other avenues you could end up with a lot of downtime, sending emails to China and receiving nothing back.

 

[BigSi]

Thanks Tony. Yes I agree aftersales support is very important. (That's why I'm hesitant in buying a China's machine). My ROI is not going to be great if I spend to much. ( I don't do a huge amount of this kind of work). Bit lacking in aftersales support on this side of the world for a lot of brands.
I did have a look at the Graphtec machine a couple of years ago and from memory it was 12K + more than twice the price of the Chinese machine.
Thanks for your input. ta Simon

 

[Ynot_UK]

Thanks Tony. Yes I agree aftersales support is very important. (That's why I'm hesitant in buying a China's machine). My ROI is not going to be great if I spend to much. ( I don't do a huge amount of this kind of work). Bit lacking in aftersales support on this side of the world for a lot of brands.
I did have a look at the Graphtec machine a couple of years ago and from memory it was 12K + more than twice the price of the Chinese machine.
Thanks for your input. ta Simon

Perhaps we're talking different machines @BigSi , but here in the UK, the Graphtec F-Mark we looked at was around half that figure in GBP

 

[BigSi]

Hi Tony. I've misplaced the original brochure I had but it was quite a few years ago. (from memory it looked very similar to to the F-mark it might have been the same machine) maybe they dropped the price? It had only just been released and I remember the price was over the moon. Will do some investigating into the vivid but as I've never heard of it I doubt there is any agency here. What made you go for the "Vivid" over the Graphtec. I have to admit the Graphtec does look a bit slow. ta Simon

 

[Ynot_UK]

What made you go for the "Vivid" over the Graphtec. I have to admit the Graphtec does look a bit slow. ta Simon

Originally we didn't think we could make the space for a flatbed, but reorganised the finishing room to accommodate one.
Our preference for a vacuum bed was driven by concern over die cutting with a fixed head. If you're only kiss cutting, this may be a non-issue. Also, whilst our machine by no means works every day, when we use it, the orders are a fair volume, so it's good to have something more substantial than a desktop cutter.
Here is a video of our Veloblade in action kiss cutting stickers.

 

[copyguy66]

Take a look at the Intec LC600. Cost is around $6500. Auto feeds label sheets up to 13"x19".

 

[joshlindsay]

Hey @BigSi , If you're interested soon I'll be selling my Intec Flatbed FB900 (A1 bed with Cut and Crease) for around the price of a new F-Mark. I'm upgrading to an auto-fed model like the Veloblade. Come out and have a gander.

 

[BigSi]

Hi Josh
Good to hear from you!. Yes would be keen to have a look. Not sure I'd have room for it but love to have a nosey. You never know. If not me I've got a mate
who might be keen (he's using a cheap Chinese machine at the moment that has its limitations).
Thanks for that advice you gave me (late last year) about running a job threw my V2100 a second time to refuse. Worked a treat.
talk soon Simon

 

[sidneykidney]

Hey @BigSi , If you're interested soon I'll be selling my Intec Flatbed FB900 (A1 bed with Cut and Crease) for around the price of a new F-Mark. I'm upgrading to an auto-fed model like the Veloblade. Come out and have a gander.

If you are looking at the VeloBlade you might also interested in Duplo's PFi Blade. This is exactly the same machine as the VeloBlade but Duplo had the software rewritten rather than using the VeloBlade chinese software.

 

[Ynot_UK]

New product development in digital die cutting is a fast moving technology. For ourselves, being able to bring SRA3 kiss cutting and die cutting jobs fully in house has been transformational. It has enabled us to develop better products and solutions, through the ability to quickly produce one-offs/small runs of samples for customer trial/user acceptance testing, instead of settling on and rolling out 'not quite perfect designs' because of the financial constraints of using external finishing houses.

As an existing Matrix + Omniflow customer, staying with Vivid made perfect business sense - after all, the digital cutter is the next step in the finishing process once the substrate has been through the Matrix.

We have limited available space in our finishing room, therefore the original Veloblade cutting table is perfect for our needs. However, if you may be looking to cut thicker substrates, such as Foamex, ABS board & corrugated, then have a look at Vivid's latest additions to the range - the Veloblade Volta and Veloblade Nexus, which cut up to 10mm & 25mm depths respectively.