Plotter cutting: practical application of technology 1

Most often, plotters are used to create stickers. This is the cheapest and easiest way to produce them. And then these products can be used anywhere. These items all can be produced with stickers

• billboards for advertising;
• showcases;
• shop signs;
• pavement signs;
• sports and special clothing;
• car tuning;
• office signs, and much more.

All these items made or shaped using self-adhesive vinyl film, cut out with a cutter.

Selecting cutting technology

Stickers can be cut in different ways using a cutter. And the choice of the most useful technology depends on several factors, namely:

1. The complexity of the outer contour of the drawing.
2. The length of the actual contour.
3. The size of the whole product.
4. The number of units to be made.

Considering all these elements, designers choose between two technologies (here we are not talking about trivial manual cutting with scissors) – plotter cutting and crucible die-cutting.

Crucible cutting is one of the traditional technologies. Its advantage is that a large party can be obtained at a minimal cost, because this requires only one or two press strokes with a die-form (a template with pre-prepared figures for cutting). But this is a good solution for large-scale projects. Making a die-form is a rather expensive process. In addition, stickers with intricate details cannot be made using this methodology, because you simply cannot insert cutting meters of this size into a die-form. Also, on such equipment it is impossible to produce elements using a large roll of film. After all, the device has a limitation on the length of the cut line and the number of elements.

Plotter cutting technology is completely different to the standard approach. As already mentioned, it is enough to have only a vector file on the computer, created with a special program. It doesn’t matter how wide is the material used, and how long is the pattern or the roll itself – even parts 200 meters long can be cut, although it is better to work with medium sizes. On the plotter, you can also make very small parts, since the knife works with an accuracy of 0.01 mm.