‘Cutting Edge’ at Fespa

The biggest global event regarding Large Format Digital Printing (also known as FESPA) made it’s way to Amsterdam last month. Of course I had to take a look. It didn’t take long for me to see one the biggest trends of today: Cutting. I expected to see inktjet printers and digital presses printing nice and colorfull images all day long. But I did not expect to see this focus regarding cutting. There were lasers, knives and extremely sharp robotic-driven blades cutting out every shape and material one can imagine. I use to think I needed to order a special metal Die Cut shape if I needed my designs cut. Not anymore.

Using these computer-driven high speed blades it’s possible to create any shape you want even for small circulation. In the old days you didn’t design a ‘special shape’ brochure or flyer if your client wasn’t about to order quite a few of them. Just the cost of creating the Die Cut shape made sure of that. The same thing with packaging. There’s no way a client could get a custom shaped box or packaging if he needed just a few of them. Creating the metal Die Cut was costly! But now? Using lasers and blades you can create and produce even the smallest amount of packaging. Perfect for testing or small circulation. And for other jobs like stickers? The new Inktjet-printers can now cut out the custom artwork and shapes. They’re the logical ‘next step’ after Desktop Publishing: Desktop Cutting. They print and cut. Perfect! Software like Signup XP even takes care of the in position automatically. All the operator needs to do is pick up the stickers.

I’ve spoken several suppliers of these cutting machines but one had a special gimmick: He had cut a model of his own Hayabusa Bike. (The bike the Dutch parliament wanted to ban). The model showed you just how big the Kongsberg XP cutting machine can cut. Behind the bike the Kongsberg XP was cutting out cardboard boxes for ‘give-aways’ at a rapid pace. It was almost impossible to take a good photo so here’s a small video demoing the Kongsberg.