Optima Graphics and Gerber Technology are pleased to announce a new partnership with the installation of a new Gerber MCT Cutter in Optima’s Fenton, MO production facility. The Gerber MCT Cutter is a large format upgrade to the traditional knife cutting and small format laser cutting Optima had utilized since being founded in 1988.

As Optima’s grand format digitally printed textile business continued to grow, they needed a larger platform machine that was modular enough to meet their specific workflow requirements, cut a range of materials, and give them the capacity to meet their expanding demand. As a result, Optima chose to purchase a flatbed cutter with a manual roll-off unit to accurately lay the fabric onto the table at a special length of 9.6 meters. This choice was made due to a large number of jobs that would have required conveying, and re-registration with a shorter cutting length. According to Jim Powers, Optima’s Manufacturing Product Engineer, “The system has accomplished everything we expected, allowing Optima to make significant savings in finishing time and provide a higher quality product for our customers. We were quite pleased that Gerber was able to develop such a sophisticated solution for both laser and knife cutting, with the modularity to allow it to attractively meet our various length requirements.”

According to Nikolai Mikkelsen, Gerber’s Executive Director of Technology & Engineering, “We’re very excited to be partnering with Optima, and pleased that our modular table platform allowed us to scale the machine to meet their specific production demands. In addition, our application experts and installation team were able to assess the space requirements and tailor the machine to their facility. We look forward to providing Optima service and support on their current machine, and helping them scale their business in the future.”