What a funny story this is for me to write since it was more than 16 years ago I purchased one of the first tangential cutters with the Opus Eye to allow me to print and cut digital graphics. What is so funny is that in the first 12 years I never used the Opus Eye once. Today I have the 63" Roland CAMM 1 Pro and I love it! The day of working smart is finally here.

 

DECISIONS, DECISIONS

Do we purchase a print-and-cut printer, or a printer and a stand-alone cutter? Well, if you own the printer and it does not cut, then I guess you have your answer. If you own a cutter that does not have the eye to see the graphics and you want to get a print and cut system, here are some points to consider.

 

Determine the price of a printer that has the print and cut all in one and whether it is less expensive than purchasing a separate printer and cutter.

 

Now you have a number that tells you the cost difference but not the benefits of either. Next you need to consider the work flow of your sales. For example, do you sell mostly short term stickers that do not need laminate? If so, then a print and cut is perfect. If you sell a lot of laminated pieces then you might want to consider a stand-alone cutter. This way you do not need to stop the printer to cut a job.

 

Do you also want the cutter for other jobs? Cut vinyl? Pouncing for patterns, sand blasting stencils, cutting out patterns from other solid vinyls such as banner material for appliqué jobs? Many applications can be done on a roll die cutter. Again, this would benefit you more by having a stand-alone cutter.

 

If you have a printer and a RIP that supports the print and cut marks, all you need is a cutter. So I am clear, you can cut a printed image from just about any printer, as long as the RIP that does the cutting supports that printer.

 

The question is how far can you push the cutter? I cut banners out for large jobs. A few weeks ago we got an order for 200 48" x 30" banners for a short-term promotion and the cutter did the whole job in a few hours. This would have taken two people all morning to cut all these out.

 

The part of the print and cut that causes the issues is setting up the files for cutting. How do you take a photo of a product and cut it out? What must I do to cut out a logo? Will the RIP do all the work or must I do it? How can I be sure because I only have one shot at doing it right? Who do I call to help me?

 

Great questions, so let me help you understand how it all works. First you must determine what you have for software, and what you expect from your printer and cutter. Keep in mind the printer just prints what you tell it to; if the cutter has an eye to see the marks, and your software puts the marks on the print, then in many cases you are all set. Yea, sure, he says! Yes, I know it is a pain to setup and understand, and if you do not do this every few days you forget. Let’s start with a RIP and walk you through the process.

 

RIP CONTROLLING THE CUTTER

If you use a RIP software that supports running a cutter, then read on, if not, go get one! I use Onyx, so I will tell you how they do it and you should be able to apply the same rules to your RIP software. First you need to determine if you are looking for a XY cut or a custom cut. An XY cut is just a straight cut to make a square or rectangle cut. This is easy and the RIP does this without any help from you. 

 

Figure 1: Onyx Main Screen with the CHANGE screen to allow the user to setup the cutter and change the media.

Figure 2: Onyx setup screen for choosing the drive drivers for the cutter.

Figure 3: RIP screen with custom die cut file.

Figure 4: RIP screen with XY file.

To do this, I go to the server part of the RIP, what I call the Main Print Control. Here I choose the printer and go to Configure Printer (See Figure 1). From here I choose SETUP – OPTIONS (See Figure 2) and then choose my cutter. I make sure in my file when I RIP the graphics I setup the PRINT CUT MARKS (See Figure 7). Then I RIP the image (See Figure 3) and it puts black dots on the graphic in the corners, outside the image area so you must allow for this on the media width. Why this is important is that if your media is 54" wide and your printer can print 52.5" but your graphic is 50" wide, there is a good chance you will not be able to print your job on this media. My RIP places the marks 1" outside the image so I would need 52" to do this job, but many jobs have not worked because I need bleed and the cut marks would fall outside the printable area. I have tricked my printer to make this happen, I place a piece of vinyl beyond the media so when the media loads it sees a wider print area, and then I can now print right to the edge of the media and the cutter in most cases will cut anything. 

 

Figure 5: Print and Process Screen, see the right corner with the setup for the print and cut.

Figure 6: Onyx has Quick Sets for custom setup of the RIP. I have Print and Cut and then just Print with tiling setup for just print.

When you want to custom cut an image, this takes a lot more work. Depending on the image, you must put a cut line around the image and name the cut line something the RIP understands. In our case, we setup Onyx to understand “diecut” as the cut line name (See Figures Diecut, No Image and Diecut Image). So, when I now send a VECTOR file over to the RIP with the extension “.EPS” it will look in the file for a cut path called “diecut,” and provided it is exactly as defined, the file should cut. What the RIP does is create print files —CMYK—and then it creates a cut file for the Cut Server part of Onyx. Then I load up Cut Server and pick the file I just printed. Cut Server communicates with the cutter to cut the job. I load the printed media, setup the cutter eye on the first dot, and tell Cut Server to cut and off it goes. Make sure you test your media first to set the cut pressure.

 

Now comes the hardest part of the whole project, setting up your vector file. The most difficult files are Photoshop images that need to be cleaned up for cutting. Remember, you do not need to silhouette the image in Photoshop. You are going to cut it out anyway, so in most cases you are better to leave the background in just in case your cut line is not perfect. Here are the steps I take:

 

1. Bring your image into Photoshop and make sure the resolution is good for the job (IMAGE – IMAGE SIZE)

 

2. Save as a TIF file so it is clean and nothing is brought into Illustrator that could cause issues.

 

3. Open Illustrator or your vector program and OPEN/PLACE the TIF image.

 

4. Now, with the pen tool or your favorite way to make a path around the image, make it.

 

5. Save the path name as “diecut.” (See Diecut Line)

 

6. Save the file as an .EPS and send to the RIP.

 

7. Open in the RIP and make sure you can see the “diecut” line. Now print it out! (See Print with Dots).

 

8. Now open the Cut Server and find the file. Load the printed image into the cutter and choose CUT (See Figure 9)

 

Yes, I make it sound easy. Once you do a few of them, you’ll find it easy as well.

 

Figure 7: This is the screen that sets up the Quick Sets and all the options for the different setups. Figure 8: Here is where the name of the cut path is defined in the RIP. This name must match the cut path name in the vector file.

Now for the ROI on the whole process. My labor cost is $15 per hour, and when I add in benefits and what the government takes for its part of the employees pay, each person cost me about $20 per hour. The Roland cutter I purchased was about $6,900 as a show special. So, can I justify it? Here is what I get for my work:

 

1. For premium vinyl for vehicles and long-term graphics I receive $12 per sq. ft. in best case, but die cut I get $15 all day long and for some jobs, if they are small, I get over $30 per sq. ft. Last month I did three sticker jobs that totaled about $900. The actual vinyl and laminate for all three jobs was 25 sq. ft. Total design time was 1 hour; total material cost was $55; profit was $825! If I do about this each month, that’s $9,900 per year!

 

2. For a banner job that we do about every month of this volume, I saved seven hours labor at $140 per job, or about $1,680 per year.

 

3. I have a few clients that want die cut material and stencils that this bring in about $5,000 per year.

 

4. The best jobs are the creative ones, where the client wants some very detailed wall or window stickers and are willing to pay for the whole project. These jobs for me bring in an additional $40,000 per year. These jobs I would not have without my Roland.

 

So, after all is said and done, my die cutting work brings in about $30,000 per year in profit. Now, this work does not just walk in the door. I need to go and get it, so you still have to sell it. Hope this has helped you see the great profit you can make with roll die cutting.

 

Good luck, and be smart with your money, and I will see you on the show floor!