The Look Company overcomes challenges with Summa’s L3214 laser cutter

The Look Company is active worldwide in the printing business with offices and satellite locations throughout Canada, the U.S., Switzerland and the Middle East. Each division has its particular focus, ranging from the production of sportswear to luxury goods and retail.

Since 20 years, their talented team of forward “look”ing people are obsessed about details and eager to create appealing, authentic and flexible solutions, tailored to the customer’s needs. Since December 2019, their Canadian division owns a Summa L3214 that helps them achieve the set goals and to produce even better and faster.

When Summa came into the picture

Last year, it was clear the company’s previous laser cutter needed to be replaced so they actively searched for a laser cutter, meeting their specific finishing and cutting requirements for textiles.

It turned out the be quite an extensive search. It was only when they came across a press release regarding the launch of the Summa L3214 laser cutter, that they finally found a perfect match. The L3214 scans registration marks using trace with ease and proved to be the ideal workhorse to process stretchable textiles. What’s more, the cutter can do it on-the-fly where the machine cuts continuously while scanning in the next part. Simultaneously.

Roger Pennell, Director of Operations, Development & Supply at The Look Company explains: “The ability of the L3214 laser cutter to scan in registrations marks whilst processing the next part is a unique combination, which no other laser cutter in the market can do so well. Simply no other laser cutter met our requirements until we came across the Summa L3214”.

Fixed-size cutting has never been easier

The Canadian division of The Look Company is mainly involved in the processing of stretchable fabrics, fitting into rectangle frames specifically used in the retail market. An accurate cut is paramount in this process, still all the more a challenge because of the stretch in the material.

Roger Pennell adds: “Summa’s L3214 takes on the challenges such as stretch on materials, fraying and speed flawlessly. Especially in the high-production environment we are working in, the L3214 proofs to be a true game-changer. The fabric rectangles are cut in fixed sizes accurately, rapidly and efficiently. It just all adds up. Similar to where the accurately cut fixed-size fabrics now fit perfectly in their frames, the Summa L3214 fits remarkably well in our high-volume production workflow.”

The future looks bright

But it doesn’t stop there. According to Roger Pennell,  also the company’s throughput has increased incredibly thanks to the L3214.  “Since we put the L3214 into operation in our production area, we notice an incredible increase in yield. The speed on the L3214 is simply exceptional. It allowed us to cut no less than 3 million square feet of textile and we are still counting! A whole lot of challenges come with the cutting of stretchable textiles, but the Summa L3214 overcomes these hurdles very well. We simply can’t wait what the future holds next. But do bring it on! The L3214 will certainly help us create a lot more striking and engaging experiences.”

The Summa L3214 laser cutter was delivered by Summa America and installed and supported by Summa’s laser division CadCam Technology.