As wide-format print service providers (PSPs) continue to push the boundaries of speed, substrate versatility, and application diversity, one area remains under constant pressure: finishing. While cutting and routing equipment has evolved rapidly in recent years, it is often where many shops encounter bottlenecks. With wide-format producers making everything from retail displays to architectural graphics, it’s imperative that they stay abreast in the cutting and routing realm. Wide-format Impressions chatted with industry experts from Zünd and Kongsberg PCS to discover the latest tips, tools, and trends shaping digital cutting and CNC routing technology.
The Finishing Bottleneck Evolves
If you ask Beatrice Drury, communications manager for Zünd, she says that, in many shops, the finishing department has become the new production constraint.
“Wide-format PSPs began facing bottlenecks in finishing when, for various reasons, digital printer speeds started increasing faster than cutting speeds, shifting the constraint from printing to digital finishing,” Drury says.
Even as hardware and workflow automation have improved, Drury says “a significant gap remains, especially in applications involving complex finishing operations.”
Dimitri van Gaever, Global Marketing Director, Kongsberg PCS, agrees. He explains that PSPs are no longer cutting the same rigid boards day in and day out – now it’s anything from stretch textiles and recycled paperboards to dense aluminum composites and honeycomb panels – so the range of substrates demands both precision and flexibility.
“Skilled labor shortages, rising material costs, sustainability demands and tight turnarounds continue to challenge print service providers (PSPs). Alongside this, PSPs are working with a wider variety of materials which behave differently in the cutting process,” Gaever says. “As a result, these businesses are increasingly having to explore how investment in solutions such as automation and smart finishing could enable them to maintain productivity with fewer manual steps, also allowing them to deploy skilled labor in other areas of the business.”
Read the rest of this story on Wide-Format Impressions, a publication of PRINTING United Alliance, ASI’s strategic partner.
