"Cutter" Review

Turning your bindery into an automatic and efficient money machine is very common, but who knows that it is only second only to the press in the printing shop? According to Marc Hart, marketing manager at Standard Duplicating Machines Corp, “The paper cutter is the soul of the printing job because each paper must ultimately pass through a binding knife, and it can be said that the paper cutter is missing and the entire book is bound. Work will be paralyzed."

Really good. However, in addition to speeding up the post-press workflow and improving work efficiency, cutters are also an important factor in determining profitability. Because “Before entering the paper cutting process, the manpower, material resources, and financial resources of the printers have been put into this work. Each print is paper, ink, prepress, India, and various management fees, and personnel salaries. Condensation, etc.. Every mistake in cutting paper will be a huge waste, and it will bring heavy losses to the company.” Rob Kool, market manager of polar paper cutting system at Hyderabad (USA), did Explanation.

Automation is the direction The manufacturers of paper cutters have been constantly upgrading their products, shortening the work cycle of machines, and increasing the speed of manual replacement to meet the requirements of increasingly high-speed printing presses. However, from the economic point of view, many printers chose not to purchase new products, but to automate existing ones.

"If there are more than four hours a day for cutting, then it's best to automate the equipment." Carl Lewis, president of Graphic Machinery & Systems (GMS), also suggested. GMS is a company that manufactures small-scale cutting automation systems. Its products include Microcut+ that automatically adjusts the rear bezel and has network support functions, Microcut jr that can automatically cut 37-inch or less paper, has a digital display, and can be programmed Microtrack, a Microfact system for dynamically collecting data, and a Cutternet system that enables a plurality of cutters to be networked by a computer.

The full automation of the cutting machine does not reduce GMS's requirements for safety protection measures. All machines use a two-armed support structure, and the cutting accuracy of the machine is guaranteed to be within +/-0.0002 inches. The installation of the entire Microcut automation system is also very convenient, as long as the cutting machine motor is replaced with a GMS company-specific DC motor, an encoder is mounted on the machine screw, and connected to the computer. Work, however, "playing 13 holes and doing some combination of some components only", the time does not exceed one day, the price is only 3400 to 7950 US dollars.

According to the introduction of Louis Division, after the automation of the machine, the production capacity of the original hand-cutting machine can be increased by 50%. Not only this, but also the most important is that it also improves the working reliability of the entire machine.

Colter & Peterson Inc. is a company specializing in the rebuilding of cutting machines. They often upgrade the control systems, computers, and security systems of the old machines of those companies that need to save costs. The effect, according to Jeff Mar, vice president of company sales, is "the same as the new one." In fact, the bigger the machine, the more cost-effective the upgrade. Renovating a 100-inch cutter can save 50% on the cost of buying a new machine.

The basic structure of mobile paper cutters has not changed for years. Although the automation of the machine is getting higher and higher, and the CIP3 technology also mentions the schedule, the physical characteristics of the cutter can still be the same, and it has a certain speed limit. Therefore, if you want to increase the production speed, the most important thing is to get the material below the cutter as soon as possible.

This type of system that speeds up the work flow, such as paper creels, hoists, unloaders, weighing machines, etc., has been around for many years, and they have almost doubled the production efficiency for printing presses. Also for the paper cutter "only the process of effectively arranging the paper is fundamental to automation, and ultimately it can increase production efficiency," Jeff commented.

Argus Press is a printing company with 22 million assets and 85 employees. They mainly print all kinds of manuals, annual reports, calendars and letterheads, etc. The customers are located in various fields of the pharmaceutical industry. A year ago, the company purchased a 52-inch Polar automated paper cutting system from Polar in Heidelberg (USA) and a complete set of work including stackers, weighing systems, grippers and depallets. Flow system.

Previously, Argus had been using a 15-year-old 52-inch paper cutter. According to the company's director of printing, Dini Coxco, “only 20% of the production time was spent on the knives, and the rest was wasted on crepe paper, upper and lower paper, etc.” “And bought this After a complete set of equipment, the time taken for cutting increased to 60%. The work completed in the past three days is now only eight hours."

Slide the material In order to catch up with the current cutting speed, Argus also specifically sent additional staff. According to Kesko, "Cut paper is the most tiring job, and you have to keep on folding it up. Now it's okay. Since the company purchased this workflow system equipment, the labor intensity of personnel has been greatly reduced, and now only You need to push the paper on. The twelve hours of work is like doing eight hours."

Although this type of workflow equipment is often used on large machines, minicomputer cutting machines have also begun to introduce this system. Challenge Machinery Co.'s Powerlift stacker is the model for the 36.5-inch paper cutter. It comes with a 28 X 43-inch slide and a maximum lifting capacity of 1,500 pounds. Baumfolder Corp. also produced equipment such as B2 paper laminating machines, L2 paper stackers, and A2 side hair dryers. In addition, a small paper cutter equipped with such a side blower device includes Poll USA's SME Series 30, 36 inch paper cutter, Adast America Inc's MS115 (42.25 inch), MS92 (36 inch), MS80. (30.5 inch), MS62 (24.5 inch) cutter; Victory trimmer from Vijuk Equipment Inc. (nickel plated hair dryer) and more.

Of course, the processing of paper also refers not only to the handling of finished products. Polar's Autotrim machine can quickly remove trimmed paper edges, etc., and improve the work efficiency by 30%. After the paper is cut, the paper table can be automatically withdrawn, and the paper scraps can be sucked into the garbage chutes behind, which greatly reduces the labor intensity of the personnel, so that they no longer have to collect the paper scraps and empty the dustbin everywhere.

CIP4 under the knife
Many vendors have already felt the prospects for CIP4 and many have integrated it into their latest or upcoming products. At drupa 2000, Heidelberg launched their 99 year GATF award-winning Polar CompuCut software. It supports an external paper cutting program. Through the computer interface, PC programs can be transferred directly to the paper cutter. .

The software has an optional "prepress CIP3 data transfer program" that can directly transmit the paper data set before printing, and manual measurement is not necessary when cutting paper. The Kurdish company's Chur said: "The program is very accurate, it can automatically adjust the paper clips and guide rails according to the situation, so that each cut is neat and precise. In just one second, the system can pass through the paper cutter. 'Automatic calibration compensation system' quickly completes adjustment work."

MAN Roland Inc. also offers the Wohlenberg series of paper cutters, which are fully compatible with the CIP3 system to meet the increasing demand of customers for CIP3 systems.

Herald Printing is a printing company with 12 million funds established in 1881. In March last year, the Wohlenberg 115 high-speed cutter and its associated workflow system were purchased from Manroland. The company's clients are colleges, professional sports teams, etc. It is an old machine but it was added to match the MAN Roland high-speed six-color press that was earlier purchased from MAN Roland in order to increase the speed of the binding. This system.

The newly added paper cutter and its workflow system are very effective. Herald president David Daly Stoop praised: “Originally, we have two paper cutters working one shift, and now one machine is doing two shifts.” The Baumann lifter has increased efficiency by 50%, and the new paper-holding system has increased. A 50% "workflow system ensures the uninterrupted operation of the paper cutter. And that's what the papermakers earn money for: never stop," he continued.

In addition, the system's CIP3 compatibility is another favorable condition for attracting Herald's purchase, because once CIP3 becomes the standard, it will immediately come in handy.

The combination of technology and art CIP4 can really speed up programming and increase efficiency? Some companies did not hide their view that speed did not improve this point. Argus's XOSCO said: "It only shortens the production cycle. The real increase in the cutting speed actually depends on the speed of the paper in and out."

Some paper-cutting machine manufacturers are even opposed to CIP4. They said that because the paper will be distorted during printing, if the parameters are set in advance, inaccurate problems will occur when paper is cut.

In this way, even though some manufacturers have introduced products based on CIP4 design, they also hope that with the continuous development of technology, CIP4 can establish a unified standard to truly achieve the goal of job integration. Malt of Colter & Peterson Inc. said: "Before you formulate a unified standard, you could not move because there is no common language. Everything is stored in different ways."

The Challenge Machinery's cutting machine can be controlled by a floppy disk, which allows the remote computer's program to be written directly to the floppy disk. But its vice president, Lope Jude, also said: “Sometimes changes due to registration, picture expansion or contraction, etc., can only be detected by a pair of well-trained eyes. Therefore, it can be said that the cut paper is also known as cut paper. It is an art."

Profit or money?
The durability of the paper cutter makes it pass down from generation to generation, especially in companies that have been fighting prepress and printing expenses. However, they have overlooked the problem that binding is also a profitable tool.

"Many people always think that bookbinding is not a money making tool, but a costly place," said Adam Robin of Manroland. In this part of the cost savings, it will rarely lead to increased production efficiency, on the contrary will lead to a disaster.

Hunter of Standard Duplication Machines warned, "If you want to cut down the bound part of the machine, don't tamper with the paper machine, otherwise it will bring as much damage as any machine to reduce, and also It will be worse."

According to Judd, Challenge Machinery, companies equipped with paper cutters should train their employees to both maintain the machine and know when to scrap the machine. He said: "A call for responsibility for obsolete and insecure machines may be the first step in buying an efficient binding machine."