Vivid Laminating Technologies has developed Velo Blade, a new flatbed cutter to extend the services printers offer, to create unique and intricate products, and to remove the need for outsourcing.
Velo Blade handles a variety of stocks and sizes, ranging between 210 x 297mm to 600 x 400mm, and paper, plastic board, PVC board, PU, cardboard, rubber sheet or marking film. Cutting is at up to 1000mm/s, with SRA3 taking between 15-45 seconds per sheet depending on the complexity of the cut or crease.
Gantry mounted vacuum clamps operate alongside air separation jets, feeding the stock into production. An industrial CCD registration camera picks out registration marks to align the cutting head. Then tungsten steel blades carry out the cutting process, whilst the vacuum-grip conveyor belt holds stock securely in place. Once all cutting, creasing and perforating is complete, the stock is automatically stacked in the collection tray.
The combination of cutting, creasing and perforating in a single pass with auto-feed, conveyor belt and collection tray, allows for automated, completely unattended production.
Vivid sales director Richard Marlow said, ‘Traditionally, the cost of bringing quality cutting in-house hasn’t been a feasible option for most print shops, which led us to launch Velo Blade.
‘Collaborating with our customers to understand what would make their businesses better and lives easier, it became clear that less outsourcing and expanding their customer base was the way to go. Velo Blade opens up completely new markets in packaging and point-of-sale giving print suppliers the platform they need to further their offering and grow the business. We’re incredibly excited to see the impact it’s going to have.’
Read more on finishing in the November/December edition of Digital Labels & Packaging
