5 opportunities to enhance with a flatbed cutter

1. When size matters

• What is your core business; do you focus on specific applications or as many as possible?
• How flexible would you like to be in offering new applications/solutions?
• Which material sizes do you process most frequently?
• How much do you want to invest?
• How much space do you have for a flatbed cutter?
• Anything else you want to consider?

2. Cut a large variety of jobs with the same flatbed cutter

Video courtesy of Sign + Digital Materials. Watch the complete video below.

Usually, a flatbed system can hold a wide range of tools with a modular tooling system, enabling to tailor the cutter to everyone’s need. The modules on Summa’s F Series flatbed systems can hold up to three tools at once, meaning up to three (different) techniques can be performed in the same job.

This way, an endless gamut of substrates can be processed in an instant. The list below is merely a fragment of what a Summa flatbed can finish for you:

• Corrugated boards
• Foamboards
• MDF boards
• PVC
• Acrylic
• Magnetic materials
• Aluminium composite media
• Roll material
• Textiles (Mesh fabrics, flags, banners,…)

3. Optimize your workflow with these media handling features

• Vacuum System to hold the material in place: Thanks to this system with air suction, the material is held down on the table whilst processing to ensure a smooth and effortless finish.
• Conveyor System for a controlled feed of the media: A conveyor belt, secured around the table, in combination with pneumatically-driven media clamps enable you to cut large material lengths and produce at large production runs.
• Roll Support System for roll-to-roll jobs: Combined with the Conveyor System, the Roll Support System is ideal for processing roll material.

Unique to Summa flatbed cutters

However, the ambitious Summa team likes to go the extra mile with following unique features, included in all standard Summa F Series flatbed cutting solutions:

• Tandem Mode to work side by side: With this mode, the active working area can be divided into front and back processing areas. This way, the operator can safely load and unload material on one end of the table while the cutter is cutting the material on the other end. The active loading area alternates between the front and the back, avoiding any idle period. (Available on the larger flatbed systems)
• Operator Zone: This feature divides the working area into two separate zones, a cut only and an operator zone. All material is fed forward to the operator zone automatically. As the cutting head doesn’t move any further than the cut zone, the operator can safely reach the cut material at the front of the machine.
• Poster Trim: Summa's flatbed cutter can cut without the need to retrieve any cutting data information or files first. The built-in camera system on all F Series sizes automatically scans the black printed frames and starts to cut immediately without any operator intervention.
  

4. Automated options to make your workflow even more efficient

If you want to boost efficiency, these automated Summa options will help to deliver fast with uncompromised quality.

• Automated Depth Control (ADC): this feature is available on all F Series models and simplifies tool, knife or bit changes and calibrations significantly. The ADC automatically sets the best knife/bit settings to get the most optimal cut quality. This is a feature unique to the market. Read more on the ADC in this blogpost! 
• Barcode recognition: while barcode recognition boosts ease of use, it also takes the complexity out of cutting different files in one job. Our barcode option sets up the device automatically by reading the barcode on the material and recognizing the entire job. With this barcode option, the machine can be left unattended whilst cutting large rolls of material (overnight), cutting continuously, job after job.

• Watch the complete video on Summa's Youtube.

5. Flatbed cutters are developed to facilitate jobs, ease of use is key here

If you are tired of complicated systems and software, the Summa flatbeds offer the following solutions:

• GoProduce Software: Summa's in-house developed software enables you to easily tailor the software functionalities you use the most and with its included material database, choosing the right settings for the material has never been easier.
• F-Performance: The F-Performance mode will ensure the performance of the F Series flatbed finishing systems will increase up to 40%. Advantages include faster up, down and turning movements of the cutting head, which will be most remarkable when using the Kiss-cutting tool. Also, feeding material will happen significantly faster. The job will be finished practically twice as fast without compromising an inch on quality. The F-Performance mode is available as free unlock on new machines via www.summa.eu/f-performance and as payable unlock on older F Series models, built before 2018.
• Maintenance: All Summa products, the F Series flatbed cutters included, are known for their robustness, durability and longevity. With a new Summa product, you are set for many years to come and you can keep maintenance costs to an absolute minimum thanks to their top-quality build.

All the above advantages and many more lead to a print and cut workflow, fitting seamlessly into each other and offering endless solutions to many industries, such as the sign making, soft signage, and digital print industries.  

With the F Series, Summa offers a robust, versatile and flexible finishing solution, which will help companies to increase their productivity, to provide their customers with a high quality finished product and to simply become ‘a cut above the rest’. 

These owners are already convinced of the huge benefits a Summa flatbed cutter can bring to your workflow!
Video courtesy of Sign + Digital Materials.