By Melissa Donovan
Part 2 of 2
Digital cutters used for finishing textiles are advancing rapidly as digitally printed textiles become more popular. Industries like home furnishing, apparel, automotive, and even medical consider digitally printed fabric. For those manufacturers, complementing their digital printing technologies with an automated cutting solution—laser or blade—is a smart move.
Popular Technology
Aeronaut Automation Pty Ltd., distributed in the U.S. by The Fox Company, offers the Mikron 2, which is a versatile multi-role cutter. Tools include a rotary blade, plunge drag blade, creaser, drill punch, perforating tools, or sign cutting blade holder to handle an array of mediums including digital textiles, sign board, corrugated, foam, and rubber. There are five cutting bed sizes to choose from. It is equipped with SiliconEye Machine Vision for accurate visual nesting, digitizing templates, nesting multiple patterns at once, pattern matching, optimizing textile use to save on waste, and alignment with registration marks. This allows greater control as an overhead camera takes a picture of the digital print on the table. Cyclops Machine Vision is a low-cost tool that automatically finds the alignment markings. Cyclops can be used to create accurate alignment grids in a nesting queue and locate registration and registration marks to fit digitally printed material on the cutting table.
The bierrebi International Crystal project optimizes the cutting processes in a range of applications—fashion, furniture, automotive, and medical products. This innovative, single-ply cutting system guarantees a higher manufacturing efficiency, greatly reducing operation costs. Crystal embraces the “green” concept of lowest power consumption. It does not require suction to retain the fabric on the cutting area. In addition, the machine’s cutting area has a special glass surface, which offers less wear and greater flatness than other conveyors. Crystal performs a precise cut thanks to its innovative and revolutionary double blade system. Its two blades separate the material through pressure, without forcing the fibers or pulling the fabric threads. Among the many features of Crystal is the Vision system, including a special hardware and software for image management and pattern matching placements. A high-resolution camera captures the fabric texture and software creates the best placement, which is quickly converted to a cutting file.
Colex Finishing, Inc. is the exclusive distributor for Fotoba automatic x/y cutters in North America. The Colex/Fotoba partnership offers the industry’s most extensive line of precision cutting equipment together with premier service. Currently on the market is the 67-inch Fotoba XLD 170 or 126-inch XLD 320. The Fotoba line of cutters can cut a 150-foot roll of media in less than ten minutes. They achieve such a fast processing time because they cut multiple panels down the roll while feeding, only stopping to cross cut the roll.
As the need for digitally printed fabrics increases, the Gerber Technology MCT Cutter provides customers with advanced technology to meet and exceed this need. The Gerber MCT Cutter is equipped with a high-powered laser to cut even very small shapes of printed fabric with clean, non-frayed, sealed edges. Unlike a knife tool, the laser requires no mechanical contact so the material is less likely to move. In addition, the Gerber MCT cutter is equipped with ten interchangeable tools that cut a variety of different materials.
Matic S.A.’s Helios Plus Laser Cutter is available in 3.3- and five-meter widths. A dedicated textile cutter, the handling, software, conveyor belt, and cutting cycle are all designed for speed and accuracy in order to fulfill high production demands of shops with multiple wide format printers. Through development, the Matic team made the Helios cutter faster by building a unique conveyor belt that allows for advancing it faster than an off-the-rack conveyor belt. Custom built, it shaves seconds off the total cutting cycle.
Morgan Tecnica Spa’s latest technology is PLY 1. It’s a complete solution that handles digitally printed fabric on roll, from roll handling, matching, cutting, and marking. The seamless solution optimizes time, quality, and speed using very little space and personnel. Thanks to the new generation of linear motors the single-ply cutting machine can reach speeds and accelerations that make it the fastest in its category.
Depending upon the application, SEI Laser has a number of textile finishing machines, distributed by Matik, Inc. The Matrix Textile uses proprietary SEI Laser technology to carry out high-speed textile marking, engraving, and cutting processes on roll-to-roll material. The core of Matrix Textile is SEI Laser’s Icaro Textile software for on-the-fly and static process optimization, able to easily process any vector or raster image or decoration. It works with natural, artificial fiber, or synthetic textile rolls; TPU; and technical textile rolls. The NRGL Textile is a laser system designed for roll cutting, engraving, marking, and perforation with a maximum working area of 126×78.7 inches. It is the top solution for converters and producers of technical fabrics for interior design, industrial, and fashion markets. The SEI Laser X-Type Line is designed for cutting and finishing applications on roll fabrics. The fabric is handled by a conveyor designed by SEI Laser, capable of eliminating reflections and guaranteeing an exceptional vacuum effect in the cutting area, assuring precise contours and avoiding material waste. A patent pending system, based on aerodynamics, picks the garments up, carrying and stacking them to complete the production cycle. For the cutting and registration of printed fabrics, two independent vision systems are available. Applications include production of finished garments, sports and non-sports footwear, clothing, fashion, and industrial applications.
Summa America’s L3214 laser cutter uses an on-the-fly cutting process, enabling cutting while the conveyor belt is moving forward, giving extra optimization of time and speed. This machine scans the printed design and automatically converts it into a cutting vector. Moreover, the L3214 can do both at the same time. This is unique in the market, reaching very high production speeds. Laser cutters from Summa feature a specially designed conveyor belt to keep the material relaxed and avoid any warping or stretching of the material. On top of that, with smart camera recognition any distortion is detected and automatically corrected in the cutting vector.
Trotec Laser, Inc.’s SP Series wide format carbon dioxide laser cutting machines are ideal for businesses working with demanding large format textile and fabric cutting applications. With working areas up to 87×126 inches and laser power up to 400 watts, these laser cutters provide high-quality results at maximum speed. JobControl Vision, available for Trotec’s SP series, replaces other third party camera registration software. This tool is integrated into the existing workflow, making JobControl the most powerful, intuitive laser software on the market. Pre-printed materials are cut to exact specifications using laser technology combined with this intelligent and easy-to-use system. JobControl Vision recognizes any distortions in the printed design. Whether it is a linear, non-linear distortion, or a rotation, the cutting path is adjusted automatically and dynamically.
Many of Zund America, Inc.’s cutting tables are equipped with specialized tools specifically designed to handle the cutting of digitally printed textiles. These include the Zünd Over Cutter Camera, which is capable of high-speed registration, capturing all visible registration marks in a single camera shot. The Zünd Cradle Feeder is for tension-free advancing of fabric onto the cutting table. The Zünd Cut Center is an integrated digital production workflow. The Zünd Cut & Seal laser option provides laser cutting or choose the Zünd high-speed Driven Rotary Tool for blade cutting.
Rising Productivity Levels
Single- or multi-ply, laser or blade, a number of options are available when it comes to cutting digitally printed fabrics. The automation offered from any of these aforementioned devices provides a level of productivity that meets some of the biggest trends of today include fast turnarounds and short-run, limited edition collections.
Click here to read part one of this exclusive online series, The End of the Fabric Processs.
Mar2020, Industrial Print Magazine