Gent (Belgium) -- i-cut, Inc., a new OEM business unit developed from EskoArtwork's acquisition of Mikkelsen Graphics Engineering (MGE), debuts in Europe in stand K84 during FESPA Digital 2009, May 12-14 in Amsterdam. The company will offer its new i-cut 7.0 vision and i-cut Pro software, as well as its complete line of vision technologies.

"i-cut Inc.'s 'vision' continues the work begun as MGE, but now with the strength and resources of EskoArtwork," comments Steen Mikkelsen, EskoArtwork Vice President. "With the introduction of

i-cut 7.0, we keep on developing cutting edge vision software for finishing machines serving sign and display companies. We look forward to showing leaders in our industry how our technology can benefit graphic producers."

With EskoArtwork's acquisition of MGE in late 2008, the OEM efforts of the company continued as

i-cut inc., a wholly owned business unit of EskoArtwork. The company develops i-cut vision systems for digital finishing and other industrial markets, including textiles, RFID, architecture, packaging and marine & boat manufacturing. i-cut, Inc. has the longest track record of providing the best possible workflow solutions for specialty graphics printing and finishing. The industry's leading vision-based finishing/cutting workflow tools, i-cut and i-script, were developed by i-cut, inc. Due to this extensive technology track record, over 36 of the industry's leading RIP, printer and cutter and router manufacturers team with i-cut, Inc. software solutions.

The complete i-cut product family

Vision control is necessary with digital finishing systems because all printed materials contain size, rotation and scaling distortions that produce inaccurate digital die cutting, if not corrected. i-cut Vision's patented means of distortion compensation enables digital cutting systems to produce error free results.

Using the i-cut family of solutions, operators with limited or no computer skills are able to produce precision-cut graphics after only a few hours of training. Owners and managers can rely on razor sharp reliability and efficiency-without spending time worrying about costly mistakes or missed deadlines.

During FESPA Digital, the company will offer its complete product line, featuring i-cut Vision Pro 7.0, underscoring i-cut's continued commitment to technology and product development that benefits sign and digital finishers and its OEM partners.

i-cut's new i-cut Vision Pro 7.0 software takes print material specifications from the work stream, including cutting keys that supply operators with optimized tool settings and blade/bit recommendations to create new ways to process materials with preset cutting parameters. This makes finishing setup even easier and simplifies the tasks necessary for start-up of each unique job. i-cut 7.0 sports a new, streamlined multi-document user interface and is fully Microsoft VISTA compatible. There are a number of enhanced production tools. By eliminating a pen lift with multi-pass routing, it provides improved speed. A new registration algorithm-including the ability to read all registration marks before cutting-delivers improved quality with placement registration. A new tool offset algorithm handles close curves as one unit, while improvements have also led to smoother cuts. Users can now export i-cut data to PDF format to print jobs or return them to an editing application, such as Adobe Illustrator. A new, advanced help system is available from all dialogs, and is provided with multimedia teaching videos, schematics, and animations.

i-cut Camera is a high quality CCD camera, lighting, optics and integrated housing with adjustable f-stop, zoom and focus settings. A fast video capture board is capable of reading a register mark in less than 1/8th of a second. It can do so, accurately, regardless of the ambient lighting, print quality of the mark, or the number of register marks to be read.

i-cut Auto-Feeder automatically loads and delivers almost any printed graphic material to a digital cutting plotter. While an option to the Esko Kongsberg table, it is also available on an OEM basis to i-cut partners.

i-cut workstation: consistent with i-cut, Inc.'s objective of streamlining every phase of digital finishing productivity, the company has developed a high-performance modular workstation for use with the i-cut system. It is available on an OEM basis to i-cut partners.

i-script provides the protocol interfaces between printing and cutting equipment to share design, scale, rotation, layout, registration marks and materials information-passed directly from the prepress RIP station to i-cut. i-script can provide automatic register mark insertion, object boundary nesting support, and more. Many i-script compatible RIPs are available, with more in development.

"Because i-cut Vision enhances the quality of digitally finished products, it completes EskoArtwork's strategy to concentrate on increasing brand holder value," adds Mikkelsen. "i-cut technology complements EskoArtwork's world-leading Kongsberg line of digital cutting solutions. Using Sign-Up and Sign-Up Auto along with i-cut technology, customers can achieve very efficient use of time and materials."