Hardware - Print Finishing

Most signmakers will at some stage or other have found themselves in a position where they have to repair a banner on site when a simple handheld eyelet tool would do the job. This has been a bit of a nightmare to sort at times – until now! Atech is proud to bring to the UK the most sought after tool a signmaker can buy – the Handy Eyepress.

Winner of the Viscom Innovation Award in 2009, this clever little tool has been selling like hotcakes across Europe and Atech has been awarded the UK distribution rights for it. Allan Ashman managing director comments; “We’re constantly searching for new and innovative tools to make the signmaker's life easier and his business more efficient. The Handy Eyepress fits this mould perfectly – as does its sister products from the Emblem range of manual and pneumatic eyelet presses. We’ll be showcasing them at Sign & Digital UK this year on our stand so you can see for yourself just how easy they are to use and how much time they can save you and your business.”

The Handy Eyepress is the first of its kind, its ideal for making on-site repairs to installed banners.  It is available in two sizes – one for 9.5mm eyelets and another for 11mm eyelets.

Cutting plotter and large format piezo inkjet printer manufacturer Mutoh Belgium nv announces availability of a new series of garment pattern marking / cutting plotters, called Kona Apparel.  Specifically developed for the garment industry, Mutoh’s Kona Apparel series are high speed professional output devices for use with apparel CAD systems.    Available in two models - Kona Apparel 1400 (cutting width 1365 mm / 53.7”) and Kona Apparel 1650 (cutting width of 1615 mm / 63.6”) - this new plotter series will ensure accurate long-length plotting of marker lines on design templates and cutting of garment patterns.

The new Kona Apparel series integrates an innovative set of application and comfort features specifically meeting the needs of today’s garment professionals in starting or established businesses.

The Kona Apparel tool head offers a dual functionality.  Two different tools (knife holder & pressurised ball point pen) can be loaded simultaneously. Switching between plotting (marking) and cutting is possible without any operator intervention.  A sheet-off system with four-sided cutting blade is also integrated in the machine.
 
A full-colour multi-language 3.5” LCD touch screen enables the user to change settings in a trice.  Up to 8 sets of user-specified tool setup parameters (speed, force, ...) can be retained in memory of the plotter, for quick recall, in function of different media types that are used.

A high-precision grit axis ensures reliable long-length output as typically required by garment professionals.   Repositionable pressure rollers with adjustable pressure ensure accurate feeding of a wide range of apparel papers, from 80 g/m² to 225 g/m².

Made in Belgium, the Kona Apparel machines are built cost-effectively thanks to advanced manufacturing techniques.  As an example, the entire frame of the Kona Apparel is robot-welded, a technique which is also used in the car manufacturing industry.

The loadable media width on a Kona Apparel 1400 amounts to 1640 mm / 64.5”.  Kona Apparel 1650 accepts media widths up to 1890 mm / 74.4”.   Off-cuts down to 104 mm (4”) can be accommodated.   The cutting force is stepwise adjustable from 20 – 450 g to guarantee optimum marking / cutting results on the widest range of materials.   Cutting/marking speed goes up to 1000 mm/s, at a maximum acceleration of 2.5 G (24.5 m/s²).  Media thicknesses up to 0.5 mm can be loaded.

Competitively priced and offered with a two years’ warranty, Mutoh’s Kona Apparel series plotters include a stand on wheels, a media basket and media support rollers for media rolls up to 30 kg.  The plotters are compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux computer platforms.

More information on the Kona Apparel can be found on: http://www.mutoh.be/page.aspx/5920

Graphtec America has added the FC4500 series flatbeds, to its extensive family of roll feed and flatbed cutters. The FC4500 flatbed cutting plotters are available in 2 table sizes. The FC4500-50 has a cutting area of 23.2x16.9 inches and the FC4510-60 has a cutting area of 33.8x23.6 inches.

Both cutting tables come standard with a dual head configuration allowing pens, cutting tools, and creasing tools to be loaded simultaneously. A new reverse creasing function allows alignment and creasing on the reverse side of the printed cardstock to prevent traces of the creasing operation from appearing on the printed surface.

The FC4500 series also features Graphtec's ARMS (Auto Registration Mark Sensor) for cutting pre-printed graphics. The FC4500 series are perfect for designers and prototyping in the offset printing, digital printing, packaging industry, fashion industry, as well as road sign making, stone & glass sandblasting/etching, the electronic film industry, and architectural model building.

Graphtec's Cutting Master 2 plug-ins are included with the cutters ensuring compatibility with Adobe Illustrator for Windows and Macintosh and CorelDraw for Windows design software.

The FC4500 series come with a standard one-year warranty and Graphtec America also offers annual Service Choice and On-Site service programs to ensure customer satisfaction.

 

Colex, the exclusive distributor in North America of Fotoba cutters, introduced the world’s only 67-in automatic cutter to SGIA, and on Wednesday, October 13 won SGIA’s Product of the Year award in the Finishing Equipment category. The new Fotoba Dreamcut XLD-170 is designed for cutting and trimming flexible inkjet and photo media.

Why cut and trim prints by hand? The Dreamcut XLD-170 has the versatility and speed to eliminate users’ bottlenecks in their finishing departments. It cuts and trims roll-and-sheet media up to 67-inches wide and 35-mil thick. Imagine cutting a 150-ft. roll of media in less than 15 minutes. The Dreamcut is the ideal solution for reducing labour costs and increasing productivity.

A unique feature of the Dreamcut is its automatic feed alignment. Users have no worry about feed misalignment. It will automatically realign to the edge of the printed image, producing square-finished images even if the printer fails to print parallel to the media edge, or if the printer fails to wind up the rolls squarely.

 

SEAL has announced the availability of the SEAL 54 EL laminator.  This entry level product is priced at under £4000 and is targeted at the sign and display market.

With a 1400mm working width - and the ability to handle materials up to 25mm thick - it offers high quality professional finishing results.  It can apply finishing and protective films as well as double-sided adhesive films.

The SEAL 54 EL has simple controls and requires minimal maintenance.  With a small footprint, it can fit into some of the smallest work areas.

 

Large format finishing manufacturer Matic has today appointed Atech Ltd of Welwyn Garden City, sole UK distributor of their range of large format finishing equipment for the soft signage and digital textiles sector.

Atech will stock and have available for demonstration the widest range of finishing equipment for the digital textile industry in the UK including industrial sewing machines/ stitchers, industrial impulse welders and pneumatic eyeleting machines.

The Cronos-L is an ergonomic sewing workstation to create professional seams on items such as flags and banners. It has a table with transport belts that are synchronized with the sewing speed, enabling the machine operator to make long seams without stopping and with constant tension on the thread.

The Rollmatic is a device for rolling up your fabric in a fast and accurate way. It can either be standalone or added to your existing cutting table. With just one operator required for heavy or large products and suitable for all fabrics, the Rollmatic allows you to roll your cut fabric directly onto a cardboard roll.

The Flexicut from Matic is designed especially for the fast and accurate straight cutting of textiles and PVC. With three types of cutting methods available; Ultrasonic Cut for textile fabrics, cutting ad sealing the edge at the same time to avoid fraying; Crush Cut, for glass  fibre coated with PVC and; Rotating Knife Cut for polyester coated PVC. Fully modular, the Flexicut can come with a table with adjustable lateral rule for measuring, a Sensor to detect the end of a fabric, a laser to line up printed fabric and a roll-up device to roll up as fast as possible I order to clear your cutting area for the next operation.

In addition, Atech will be distributing the entire Talos range of eyeleting machines. With two manual, two pneumatic and two automatic versions taking either 40mm or 150mm diameter grommits they are useful tools for automating the punching and inserting of eyelet grommit and washers in one action. In addition there is the Talos HF (High Frequency) eyeletter, used to punch and weld eyelets with high frequency technology. The Talos HF will punch and weld eyelets through 4-6 layers of PVC and yet it is a relatively quiet machine that is easy to use and maintain.

Atech are widely regarded as experts in the UK on large format printing and finishing and focus heavily on only supplying robust and quality-engineered products such as Zund, ATP Textile printers, Roland printers and Seal film & liquid laminators.  They are also specialists in the photographic market and they are exclusive distributors for Chromira Digital PhotoLabs and Unibind Professional PhotoBook Makers.