1. One system utilized MCT’s motorized roll handling capability that can uniformly lay and advance 3.2 meter rolls of either fabric or vinyl on the cutting surface. Such solutions can utilize both conveyors via quick changeover (aluminum for laser cutting or felt for knife cutting), No other solution offers this flexibility or can cut fabric with either/both a driven wheel knife or a laser. When using the laser, sealed edges replace the cut edges that would otherwise fray, simplifying the finishing process.

2. A second system included the 2.5 kW liquid cooled heavy duty router. Two tangential knife tools we also loaded at all times presenting a typical configuration for a PSP or printing trade shop. MCT also introduced its new automatic loading sheet feeder, filling the last gap in its product line and providing a simplified and easier to maintain feeding mechanism than for competitive units.

In looking around the SGIA show floor, no other vendor could demonstrate the variety of cutting capabilities that an MCT VersaTech could provide. Adding a laser as a new cutting tool adds a new dimension to flatbed finishing technology unique to MCT. While it can be argued that a laser may not be necessary and that traditional driven wheel cutting knife can finish fabrics twice as fast, this is really a half truth. All driven wheels have inherently the same cutting speed. But, not utilizing a laser increases the need for follow-on hemming for many projects, as the laser finishes the edges in the same manner as a manual heat knife. Additionally, the mechanical driven wheel poses the likelihood to push the lighter fabrics (that run almost as fast with the laser as with the knife and produce a clean finished edge automatically) during cutting, causing bunching, with missed cuts or even worse on thinner fabric.

With MCT’s VersaTech you never have to choose a suboptimal cutting technology for a job just because it is all you can achieve.

For those looking for additional evidence of the laser’s utility for fabric, an early MCT customer, Comfortex Window Fashions, a Hunter Douglas Company, is changing as many legacy window shade fabrics as they can to ones that are laser cuttable in its attempt to continually streamline its finishing process and reduce hemming requirements.

MCT also introduced a new front end software and vision system, dubbed “TigerVision”, set to roll out in 2016. By using a higher resolution digital camera in a new way, TigerVision enables a significantly decreased set up time for finding print registration for cut accuracy. Contact MCT for more information about this new and unique capability.