Paterson, NJ – Gambling remains a major attraction in Las Vegas, and some casinos still offer “no limit” on certain games of chance. Attendees at this year’s SGIA Expo, set for September 14-16 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, should keep that in mind. Printers and converters looking to invest in unique finishing equipment will learn how Colter & Peterson (booth 316) www.papercutters.com continues to stretch the limit on the size of their industry-leading cutting machines and systems. 

Since last year’s SGIA Expo ten months ago in Atlanta, C&P has pushed the boundaries on its highly popular SABER® brand of paper cutters. A number of C&P customers have since installed or placed orders for SABER XXL and X15 Plus models that tip the scales in the 126” to 141” range. That puts them in the upper echelon of doing work that most printers can’t compete with, so C&P President Bruce Peterson is challenging this year’s visitors to think big. Very big.

“There is more interest now for large format paper cutters that can cut a wide range of different and difficult substrates. It really took off six months ago when we entered into an agreement for having our equipment integrated and certified with HP Indigo,” said Peterson. 

“SABER cutters with our Microcut® computer control systems offer tremendous benefits to printers who handle large format work, especially when it comes to improving productivity. If printers are cutting squares and rectangles, it makes tremendous sense to pile up all the work rather than cutting one sheet at a time. Depending on the complexity and thickness of the substrate, our SABER paper cutters with integrated Microcut controls can trim much more material in a fraction of the time. That’s going to impact the bottom line more substantially, compared to I-Cut, Kongsberg and other X-Y axis machines that cut just one sheet at a time.”  

SABER XXL and X15 Plus machines are incredibly reliable. They cut all day, and with Microcut’s time-saving features, can dramatically improve productivity. Microcut is the most popular retrofit system in the marketplace, with 35,000 installations on every brand of paper cutter ranging from 20 to 150 inches in size. Large format printers have learned how well SABER paper cutters accurately trim board, styrene, vinyl and corrugated material, in addition to paper.

In the last days of August, PhotoCraft, Inc. - a division of Vectra Visual in Beaverton, Oregon - installed a 126” SABER XXL cutter. “PhotoCraft spent three months of R&D with regards to finding a solution for large format cutting,” said John Rodriguez, general manager for this leading provider of innovative retail graphic solutions. “We needed a machine that could handle various substrates up to 120” in cut width and depth, and state-of-the-art precision cutting with JDF technology. After many comparisons, the SABER XXL paper cutter was the preferred choice.”

Leaders at the Blaine, Minnesota facility of E & T Plastics, a leading plastics distributor and component manufacturer, wanted a unique solution to cut large plastic sheets. Since mid-June, their 137” SABER X-15 Plus cuts 2” to 4” high blocks of material, depending on the thickness.

“We wanted to bring something into the market that no one else has,” commented Tom Tuckey, Midwest Regional Manager. “Our customers require many types of large format materials. In the two-plus months we’ve had it, the SABER X-15 Plus cutter has met all of our expectations.”

Lewisburg Printing near Nashville, Tennessee specializes in POP/specialty packaging printing. They currently are in the process of supersizing their operation with another new 110” SABER XXL cutting system after having great success with a 90” SABER XXL cutting system that was installed two years ago. Company officials remarked how productive their SABER cutting systems are, and how they like the quick set-up using the automated Microcut system.

At SGIA, visitors can learn more about the different Microcut versions that are available including the Microcut COLOR, Microcut JR and Microcut PLUS WS units. Each retrofit makes any paper cutter safer, more efficient and more productive with state-of-the-art technology. Microcut PLUS WS units offer multiple benefits to large format printers. Features like microcip® and microfacts®, combined with touchscreen controls and easy set-up, greatly reduces make-ready time. Microcut PLUS WS units can even upload job information from a network connection or a USB device using JDF files, No additional hardware or software is needed.

“The marketplace is demanding larger machines and we’ve responded by increasing the size of the units we manufacture,” summed up Peterson. “At this moment, we are installing a few 141” SABER X-15 cutters on the east coast, the west coast and in the Midwest. I anticipate talking to customers at the SGIA Expo who will probably want to stretch the limits using 141” SABER cutters.”