Plockmatic/Intec support in US for Intec CS6500

[SoggyWinter]

I'm considering buying an Plockmatic/Intec SC6500 for making stickers and testing the waters with small boxes. Show special has modest savings. Has anyone had good or bad experiences with Plockmatic and/or Intec support in the US? I have not worked with this group or their equipment before.

 

[tngcas]

I'm considering buying an Plockmatic/Intec SC6500 for making stickers and testing the waters with small boxes. Show special has modest savings. Has anyone had good or bad experiences with Plockmatic and/or Intec support in the US? I have not worked with this group or their equipment before.

What's the show special? I'm super curious about this equipment myself and I'd love to have a general idea of costs since I'm not at the show. @criccidisk said he really liked the Intec SC5000 but that was before plockmatic bought out Intec.

We recently bought a Morgana BM5050 for our Phoenix location and then a Square folding unit for our Portland Metro area location. Plockmatic outsources their service contracts to Bell and Howard.

The Bell and Howard division in Phoenix has been a LITERAL nightmare. I could tell you story after story but I'll stick to a few for now.

1. We had to ban one of their techs from stepping into our shop ever again because he ruined everything he touched - installed parts incorrectly and/or with missing bolts (they were found later by plockmatic techs under other machines).
2. The only other tech trained on the machine takes weeks to show up, has no sense of basic troubleshooting and just guesses, orders parts and then waits weeks to show up to install them. Plockmatic had to send repair techs from their team on the East Coast 5 times.
3. The last repair job took B&H - 80 days. 80 DAYS. Our Canon sales team had to hound Plockmatic to get them to hound Bell and Howard. Even then Plockmatic still ended up flying a guy out from the East Coast and the problem ended up being something simple and quick to fix. Our issues with repair jobs on the BM5050 from Bell and Howard stretched nearly 18 months with Plockmatic extending our service an additional 6 months due to B&H repair related issues. Canon finally had one of their repair techs trained on the machine so we never have to rely on the Phoenix division of Bell and Howard again for which I'm truly thankful.

Plockmatic tried to be great but I personally feel they relied too much on Bell and Howard to follow through even when it became clear that B&H couldn't honor their service commitments and they continued to leave our shop at B&H's mercy despite the astronomical costs both to them and our shop.

Alternatively
The Bell and Howard division in Portland has been fantastic to work with. For example: We needed a small bit of repair on the machine and it was taken care of in a very timely professional manner. First phone call from the tech within 4 hours, tech arrived when they said they would (on our schedule - Friday). Looked at the machine, ordered replacement parts had the machine working on Monday or Tuesday if I remember.

 

[SoggyWinter]

$11000 with the box template software.

 

[criccidisk]

Sorry that I'm just now seeing this thread. My overall experience with Intec has been pretty solid on our SC5000's. I fortunately haven't had to dive too deeply into support-related problems, but Michael and Matt at Intec have been very helpful over the phone with guiding me through basic break-fix repairs, general Q&A, and theories of operation. It can be a tiny bit overwhelming to tackle the initial setup on the units by yourself, but after you understand how the machine and its PC software play off of one another, it becomes pretty straightforward to configure everything. Case in point, I think it took me less than an hour to set up our second SC5000 after putting its rolling cart together.

 

[axelmk]

I have no experience with INTEC, but our Experience with Plockmatic was a Nightmare, bought a Square back 224 stitcher and six months later they could not make it work correctly and it was returned.
Lost Money and time on the Deal.

 

[tngcas]

after you understand how the machine and its PC software play off of one another, it becomes pretty straightforward to configure everything.

This has actually been my biggest hesitation on buying the machine. I haven't been able to get anyone to demo the software for me (the sales guy keeps cancelling/delaying appointments). I'm hesitant to buy anything without knowing whether or not it's going to be easy to train my "non-graphic-designers" print team to use the machine. I'm not thrilled about ending up with a machine that only one person in our shop can setup and run. I want to see the software and actively use it first not just "run their preset demos". We have a pretty seamless operation with all of our other equipment.

 

[Eric Boucher]

This has actually been my biggest hesitation on buying the machine. I haven't been able to get anyone to demo the software for me (the sales guy keeps cancelling/delaying appointments). I'm hesitant to buy anything without knowing whether or not it's going to be easy to train my "non-graphic-designers" print team to use the machine. I'm not thrilled about ending up with a machine that only one person in our shop can setup and run. I want to see the software and actively use it first not just "run their preset demos". We have a pretty seamless operation with all of our other equipment.

We ran 3 SC5000´s for a few months last year before replacing them with larger flatbed cutters. I have to say I was impressed by the Illustrator plug-in. You just set-up the artwork with the cut path on a specific layer and then run the plug-in. It will automatically add the 4 dots and a QRcode. Then you can just print and throw the page into the cutter, it will automatically retrieve the cut file by reading the QRcode. If you
run the same few substrates, you can even save different force and speed set-ups so that you don’t even have to do anything at all on the cutter (you just need to use the right path color in Illustrator).

 

[criccidisk]

This has actually been my biggest hesitation on buying the machine. I haven't been able to get anyone to demo the software for me (the sales guy keeps cancelling/delaying appointments). I'm hesitant to buy anything without knowing whether or not it's going to be easy to train my "non-graphic-designers" print team to use the machine. I'm not thrilled about ending up with a machine that only one person in our shop can setup and run. I want to see the software and actively use it first not just "run their preset demos". We have a pretty seamless operation with all of our other equipment.

As @Eric Boucher mentioned, it's pretty straightforward to set up the cut files for projects. I can't say that Intec's documentation made it the easiest process in the world as of several years ago when I was learning, but the overall theory/workflow is the following:

* There are two flavors of their cut software: one that exists as an Illustrator (or CorelDraw) plugin on the "prepress" computer and one that exists as a standalone package on the computer attached to the Intec machine. Don't worry about the specs of the latter computer--i bought a refurbished Dell laptop from Microcenter for $200 that works perfectly fine for the task. Both flavors of the software work in unison with one another to accomplish unique tasks.

*** On the prepress side: ***
* The cut lines are added 100% to-scale as their own layer on your press sheet imposition file in Illustrator. You can use any primary or secondary color to designate different functions for these cutlines. The actual functions of those colors are determined on the machine's side of the software, not from the Illustrator plugin.

* Because it's important, I'll reiterate: the cutlines are based on your press sheet size, not your 1-out finished good size. If you're printing your project 12" x 18", your Illustrator artboard will be 12" x 18". If you have a step and repeat or n-up job, you will need to use software such as QuiteImposing to multi-up the cutlines and corresponding artwork at your press sheet size, and then isolate the cutlines to their own layer. Usually I select one of the cutlines, use Illustrator's Select Same Stroke Color command to grab all the cutlines on the press sheet, then cut and paste them to a new layer.

* To initiate the software, select the artboard and layer with your vector cutlines, then go to Illustrator's File menu and select the appropriate ColorCut Pro action. Generally, this is "Add Pagemarks and QR Code" but there are other functions and preferences available in this same menu.

* The software will ask you to create a seven-digit job number that will correspond with your cut data. It will generate a random one you're welcome to use, or you can type in your own number. You can overwrite an existing job number by typing it into this area as well.

* If all is well, a new layer will be added to your Illustrator file that creates your corner registration dots and/or your job number and QR code. You can also preview your cutlines to make sure the color coding, orientation, etc was accurately processed.

* So here's the part that stumped me early on: your job number files containing your cut data are stored locally on your PC in a ColorCut Data directory (I believe it's under Windows' AppData folder). This will NOT talk to the PC attached to the Intec cutter by default. To resolve this, if you have a central network file server, you can make a common directory that both PCs can access; you can add the local and network directories to your Windows Quick Access menu, and then you can copy+paste your local data to the network directory whenever you make a new job file.

*** On the Machine Side ***
* On the other PC attached to the Intec, you perform those file transfer steps in reverse, copying the files from your network directory to your local ColorCut Data folder on this device. If you're more tech savvy than me, you can also set up synchronization software that automatically performs these steps. If you're less tech savvy than me, you can bypass the network directory altogether and use a flash drive to transfer the data back and forth between both devices. Everyone's a winner!

* The cut software can recall your job number one of two ways: it can scan a QR code on your press sheet if it exists, or you can manually input the seven digit number generated from earlier. Honestly, I just manually enter the number. If the software detects your job number through the file you copied over, your cutlines will appear in the preview window.

* So now for the big ol' grand slam theory of operation: this machine works by reading the position of the corner dots with relation to the size of your press sheet. It doesn't care what the actual printed contents of your press sheet look like as long as it has its corner dots to reference. The cut/score/perforation/etc lines are interpreted by the data in your locally stored job file and the machine will adjust the position, stretch, and skew of those cutlines based on how it read the positioning of your corner dots. Since your printed artwork is printed in unison with those corner dots, it makes for a pretty darn accurate interpretation of the distortions found in each press sheet.

* As for parameters in the software: you can create presets for the device's Tool1 and Tool2 (generally a drag knife and creasing nub) and adjust their force, speed, perforation lengths, hang tags, and if you're performing a single pass versus a double pass. Those presets can be assigned to any colors detected inside your job file. For example, we have 20 or so presets for functions such as "Die Cut - Lightweight Cover" or "Kiss Cut Label" that have their own unique parameters.

* In the program as a whole, you can program your run lengths (one sheet to infinite), adjust the pickup strength of the feed vacuum, tell the machine how many times to scan each corner dot for accuracy, enable/disable QR code reading usage, calibrate the camera/sensor using a ballpoint pen tool, and a handful of other tasks.

* Pretty important however: you CANNOT edit the cutline shape or positioning from the machine's standalone software. That will need to go back to prepress for correcting. The great news however is that you will not need to reprint anything if only your cutlines are changing and as long as you printed those corner dots at the same time as your main artwork.

I know that's super long winded, but I hope that helps provide you a solid overview of the software!

 

[tngcas]

Thank you for that detailed explanation.
My main question is.
How reusable is the time I spent setting that up. I don't mind the time it takes to setup a layout but I want anyone on my team to then be able to reuse that layout with new artwork without having to reset up the same thing over and over again.

For example: If I setup a job for "4x9 doorhangers printed 4-up on 12x18"
Can I then take the registration marks (corner dots), barcode or whatever it needs and drop that into indesign and then set it up to where anyone can swap artwork in and out of the 4 - 4x9 boxes of where it should be cutting and then they can just print that and use the matching job number (the typed number) in the cutter to pull the matching cut file. Or do we have to resetup everything every time?

 

[Eric Boucher]

Thank you for that detailed explanation.
My main question is.
How reusable is the time I spent setting that up. I don't mind the time it takes to setup a layout but I want anyone on my team to then be able to reuse that layout with new artwork without having to reset up the same thing over and over again.

For example: If I setup a job for "4x9 doorhangers printed 4-up on 12x18"
Can I then take the registration marks (corner dots), barcode or whatever it needs and drop that into indesign and then set it up to where anyone can swap artwork in and out of the 4 - 4x9 boxes of where it should be cutting and then they can just print that and use the matching job number (the typed number) in the cutter to pull the matching cut file. Or do we have to resetup everything every time?

If you do repeat jobs, use the QRcode. Once you’ve set up the cutting file the first time, as long as you print all your jobs in the same position, the machine will read the QRcode, retrieve the cutting file and cut. Nothing more to do, except adjusting cutting depth every now and then as the blade and cutting strip wear out.

 

[tngcas]

If you do repeat jobs, use the QRcode. Once you’ve set up the cutting file the first time, as long as you print all your jobs in the same position, the machine will read the QRcode, retrieve the cutting file and cut. Nothing more to do, except adjusting cutting depth every now and then as the blade and cutting strip wear out.

Awesome. That's exactly what I was hoping for.

 

[Robohopar]

bringing this back from a while ago, sorry.

I'm really considering the 6500. I like the compact-ish size and the versatility it offers. For my short run same day style shop I run I think I can really benefit from it. Can anyone share their experience with this machine? Also, whats the best avenue to acquire one? I'm assuming a show would be my best bet, right?

 

[SoggyWinter]

bringing this back from a while ago, sorry.

I'm really considering the 6500. I like the compact-ish size and the versatility it offers. For my short run same day style shop I run I think I can really benefit from it. Can anyone share their experience with this machine? Also, whats the best avenue to acquire one? I'm assuming a show would be my best bet, right?

Printing United had show specials. I'd go through a dealer so you have someone to escalate support issues if they occur.

You might give Summa's D1 and Tray 1 a look too. It is less expensive at around $7000, but I haven't used either so I can't make a recommendation. If you're interested and in North America, give Phil at Airmark a call. Him and his techs are fantastic. I got a Summa S2T from them.

https://www.summa.com/en-us/blog/summa-tray-one-sheet-feeder-for-enhanced-automation-and-efficiency/

 

[tngcas]

In case anyone is wondering about Plockmatic on the service side. We received an invoice from them last month (July 2024) for service on a piece of equipment in March 2024. They sent out an untrained tech who after we showed him the machine and the problem said he didn't know how to fix it and wasn't comfortable working on a machine he wasn't trained on and then left. They then sent the tech out weeks later (long after our deadlines for the print products we needed the equipment for). The service tech did a software update on the machine and pronounced the problem fixed. The invoice is over $1000 for a software update.

I wouldn't buy a piece of equipment from Morgana/Plockmatic equipment unless you 100% know that you can get service from anyone else but Plockmatic since they aren't capable of fixing their own equipment without substantial delays.