Sign shops continue to seek out more expanded routing/cutting solutions to help them to provide the latest products and services to meet their clients’ needs. They are looking for increased automation capabilities that can offer seamless integration into their existing workflows and versatility in the finishing services they can provide. Recent developments in CNC technology are not only helping shops shave off valuable production time but also helping take their projects to new heights.

CNC Product Trends

Over the past few years, leading router manufacturers have brought new machines as well as cutting and automated tools to the market to increase capacity while reducing customer lead times and overall labor costs. The impact these products have made on sign shops has been huge. New knife cutting tools and expanded software offerings are allowing them to automate more capabilities and add new creative product options to their portfolio.

“Router Bob” Alsup, a CNC specialist at Laguna Tools in Irvine, California, says sign shops now prefer CNC machines with expanded capabilities. This is made possible with the addition of accessories permitting the machines to perform traditional CNC machine functions (cutting wood, plastic, non-ferrous metals, etc.) along with more graphic-based capabilities involving tangential knives, oscillating heads, and creasing wheels.

He reports that the addition of features like an automatic tool changer provide a wide variety traditional machining capabilities. “Tangential knife eco-heads permit cutting printed graphics on a variety of materials, and tangential oscillating knife eco-heads cut printed graphics on thicker, softer materials such as foams. Also, tangential creasing wheel eco-heads can be used for creating packaging materials.”

John Harris, formerly the director of sales and marketing at MultiCam, Dallas, (now semi-retired and working for the company on a consulting project basis) is seeing a number of major trends in this area such as more automated options.

“Automated load/unload systems have been popular in Europe for some time now and we are seeing them offered more here in the U.S.,” Harris says. “They can save labor, which is their primary benefit but they do not increase production and they also take up more floor space which is a premium for most companies.”

He is also seeing a big trend moving toward router/knife combination machines.

“Knife machines have been primarily found on lightweight digital finishing machines made specifically for the graphics market. Many customers have multiple applications for both routing of heavy material as well as cutting a wide variety of materials that are better suited to be cut with a knife. A heavy-duty router with a knife attachment is a much better choice for those applications,” he explains.

Harris adds that there are higher RPM spindles now available, which is a big plus.

“Previous spindles were usually limited to around 20,000 RPM max, but today typical spindles run 24,000 to 32,000 RPM. This allows for faster feed speeds and better finishes on a wide variety of materials.”

Keeping Up with Flatbeds

“The print-to-cut market has rapidly increased over the last few years,” says Robert Marshall, vice president - Market Development at AXYZ International, Yorba Linda, California. “This is no doubt due to the increase in production and capability of flatbed printers.

“Where previously print was only produced on thin and flexible material, enhanced technology has now meant that rigid materials such as aluminum, wood and ACM can now be printed on. As such, the only machinery that can cut these types of substrates are CNC routers, and this is where companies such as AXYZ comes into their own.”

A number of router manufacturers have recently expanded their product lines to meet end user’s ever-changing needs. Here a sampling of some the latest CNC equipment and accessories for sign shops.

MultiCam Adds New Tools

Harris says some of the recent/new tools/accessories to be added to their machines include simultaneous 4th and 5th spindle axes allow a much broader range of applications to be addressed. “Rotary 4th axes allow traditional lathe work to be done on a router. 4th and 5th axes allow for complex cuts that cannot be achieved with traditional 3-axis (X, Y, Z) cutters. An example would be trimming the edge of a cast 3D product to clean up excess material left over from the molding process. Products such as a carved chair leg can also be produced with a rotary 4th axis (lathe).”

He says products such as the MultiCam Vision System uses automated camera recognition to automatically register printed panels so that exact cutting to match the printed shapes can be performed.

“The Vision system allows reading of registration marks and automatic compensation for print drift and skew. It provides customers the option to accurately cut out long runs of traditional sign and graphics products that can vary widely in orientation and print quality due to the inaccuracies of the printing process.”

Creating Works of Art

Harris adds that cutting tools such as diamond polishing bits are becoming popular for achieving a polished edge on acrylic similar to what has been previously done with flame polishing. He reports that one of their customers, a fine art gallery and product design studio, is making polished decorative acrylic art pieces from one-inch thick acrylic. “Our MultiCam 3000 CNC router was designed specifically to cut one-inch thick acrylic with great precision for polished edges using a diamond polishing bit,” comments Joseph Garcia, founder of Wonderwall Studio in Austin, Texas. “We have been digitally printing on acrylic and experimenting with clear, white, black and coke bottle colored acrylic with spectacular results,” he explains.

AXYZ Raises the Trident

AXYZ International’s Marshall explains that rather than adding a new tool or accessory to their line they opted to develop a brand new machine, which has been directly engineered for the print finishing industry, that new machine is known as the Trident Series. “The print finishing industry has blossomed and has enabled us to create a hybrid option, which gives us a competitive edge in the market. The Trident Series offers a high speed, powerful router and fully captures the full use of our AVS camera accessory and twin knife cutting head.”

He says that the new twin knife head consists of an oscillating and tangential knife arrangement. The oscillating knife is capable of processing thin flexible materials, whereas the tangential knife tackles heavier, thicker and harder materials. The 10-horsepower spindle adds more needed power and versatility and allows users to process the much newer industry substrates such as aluminum, wood and ACM.

“Our oscillating knife offers customers the ability to process thin flexible materials with clean cut edges without fraying. The tangential knife with our unique cartridge system offers customers an easily interchanged cartridge to allow a vast range of material to be processed with straight edges, sharp corners and all radii to be cut clearly and accurately. The spring-loaded heavy-duty knife can cut flexible and semi rigid materials, whereas the vinyl knife is primarily used for large format vinyl cutting, and cutting paper masks on to acrylic sheets for painting,” he explains.

Live Vacuum Deck Technology

Marshall says another recent trend in the market has been for shops to purchase large bed routers as opposed to several smaller units. “As such, end users are having to purchase bigger and more powerful vacuum pumps to ensure an extremely well-vacuumed bed. This can, and often is, extremely expensive, and rarely does it provide the perfect solution.”

He says as a reaction to this trend, AXYZ recently introduced what it calls Live Vacuum Deck technology, which provides automatic zone management. “A unique and highly configurable vacuum option allows the AXYZ zoned vacuum system to operate in Live Deck, Pendulum Processing or independent switching modes of operation. The Live Vacuum Deck will automatically activate and deactivate zones according to the live position of the cutting head. This ensures that material is always held as securely as possible for best cutting results. Pendulum Processing mode allows the vacuum to switch between two virtual zones, usually the front and rear halves of the machine so that it can operate continuously for maximum production. For total manual control, individual zones can be switched through the zone manager.”

Marshall adds that all three options ensure that whichever setup a user’s machine has, the Live Vacuum Deck option ensures optimal holding power, dramatically improving cut quality, while simultaneously improving reliability and accuracy.

More Productive Tools

Marshall reports they also offer many accessories or configuration options, which allow their customers to become more productive, be it in terms of workflow or cut quality.

“One of our major contributors to a more productive workhorse is the option to facilitate multiple carriages. Multiple carriages can be mounted on to one gantry to allow customers to run multiple versions of the same job. Each carriage is independently driven to maintain part accuracy and can both be configured with automatic tool changer carousels.”

Lastly, another new launch features a new 40K high-speed spindle. “This cutting option operates at a maximum speed of 40,000 RPM and can accelerate to full speed in a matter of seconds, and brake just as fast. This new option means that material can be cut up to 300 percent faster than previous models while maintaining the same cut quality throughout,” Marshall concludes.

New Models on the Horizon from Computerized Cutters

Plano, Texas-based Computerized Cutters offers its Accu-Cut series of routers that are said to be one of the most heavy-duty, affordably priced, reliable and accurate router series on the market.

Company president Carl Ondracek says the trends they are seeing include more of their customers using routers for engraving applications as well as using tangential knives for projects made from fabrics, graphic films and foams.

Ondracek points out that one area where the industry is lacking is in providing shops with an affordable CNC unit that offers a smaller footprint. “We are going to address that area and introduce a series of new affordable routers shortly that will offer a host of cutting options including laser cutting as well as a head for 3D printing. These models are going to start at a very attractive price point in the $3,000 to $4,000 range. It is our goal that this series will appeal to all types of sign shops and output providers. The overall footprint will be small (2' x 2' and 4' x 4') so they will be able to fit into a lot of different types of businesses.”

Smart Solutions from Laguna

Alsup says the Laguna SmartShop | MT is the most powerful and versatile router platforms in the company's line up. “With an extended gantry and extra-large tool plate, the machine can be configured to meet multiple production needs in a single machine. Applications for this machine are endless.”

He points out that in addition to the stock four-horsepower spindle, tool possibilities include a tangential knife system, a roller creasing wheel, an oscillating tangential knife, a right-angle spindle, a secondary spindle for cutting metal (low RPM), as well as a repeated drilling process, a braille distributor and a pneumatic self-feed tapping system. Alsup adds that since the machine uses Laguna’s fourth-axis control set, a turning device (lathe) can be added as well.

“A properly equipped Laguna SmartShop | MT CNC router can give a sign shop the ability to machine traditional materials, such as wood, plastic, composites, and non-ferrous metals. Using VCarve software, they can produce signs in a variety of materials—plastic and aluminum letters, 3D models, printed graphics, and even printed packaging materials,” Alsup concludes.