Plotter cutting Leave a comment

Plotter cutting and laser technology is widely used these days. This technology is especially in demand in the advertising. It is used to create shop windows, signs, shop names, office tags, banners, billboards and much more. So, what is plotter cutting and in what projects is it used for?

In the broad sense of the word, this is the cutting of an image on any material. For example, for such an object as a stencil, the mould is made on a computer, then it is cut out on a plotter and used, for example, to paint a wall. Vinyl film is usually used as the cutting material. But thermal transfer film is especially in demand, and you can create stickers on clothes and other objects with this film. Therefore, if you see an inscription or image made out of film on textiles, glass, metal or somewhere else, you can be sure that this is a plotter cutting of stickers, it cannot be another technology.

What did people do before, when there were no plotters? After all, information was always presented on the stands, and advertising existed long before this device was first manufactured. At first, all the inscriptions were drawn with paint by hand, then they began to use self-adhesive film, but they cut it out on manual cutters or manually altogether. Some people still use this outdated technology, which is extremely inconvenient. With the invention of the cutting plotter, everything can be done automatically by doing the necessary actions on the computer.

How understand and using cutting equipment

What is plotter cutting is easy to understand. Just think where banners, shop signs, a film cover that often decorates sports cars, and over various design ideas come from. All this done by plotters (or cutters), which have a number of serious advantages:

• no matter what size and colour the film is, it can be cut using a plotter;
• if you make an image correctly, and choose a good material, then such a product can serve for about 5 years, or even more, depending on what environment it will be located in;
• it is a fairly cheap way to create advertising that does no harm;
• you do not need to have too advanced skills to learn programs that prepare an image for cutting, etc.
  As you can see, everything is pretty much elementary. First, a program that works with vector images is installed, the desired model is created in it. Then the plotter with the film pre-set on the substrate is connected to PC/workstation. A test pass is made, determining the required knife pressure, after which a picture is cut out on the material. The unnecessary film is removed, and an image is applied to its adhesive part. And after that it can be transferred to any object or surface.