Still Sheeting by hand? Let the Gerber EnVision do it for you.

Imagine if your hand sheeting resulted in a perfectly aligned stack of labels or signs that are all the same size.  Better yet, imagine not having to stand over the top of the cutting tool, chopper, or trimmer, straining your eyes to make sure you are cutting exactly where you should be.  There is a better way and your customers will be impressed at the clean professional results you present them with.

The better way is the Gerber EnVision plotter.  It is a tool which allows you to precisely dial out the depth of the blade to the nearest “mil” (1 thousandth of an inch).  The ability to do that allows you to control the cutting depth so you don’t over-cut into the liner.  Since the Gerber system is sprocket fed, it makes it possible to flip the media over and cut the liner down the film.

Cutting the film down to the liner or cutting the liner down to the film is traditionally called “kiss cutting.”  So, imagine kiss cutting a column of 9 labels, then flipping the material over and kiss cutting a strip around the 9 labels.  The real time saver is weeding/stripping the waste from the liner side by flipping the material over and grabbing the corner of each strip.  The labels will come up on the liner intact, as you can see from the photo.  One tip: Make sure you assign double cuts to the front side (even if your are cutting 2 mil vinyl), so that the cutter makes a completely clean cut with no tips that didn’t meet perfectly resulting in difficult to weeding.

More complex cuts such as lettering will require different sheeting techniques.  For instance, one way to accomplish sheeting something as complex as lettering is to make a 1/8″ inline of the shape you intend to use as the cut line for the sheet.  Make sure the sheet cut is assigned to the back cut layer and make sure the inline is assigned to the front side layer that your lettering is being cut on. The 1/8″ shoulder that you created will keep the sheet intact while it is running through the plotter.  When it’s done cutting both sides, just push the sheets out of the roll and they are ready to be weeded by hand.  In the end, the sheets are all the same size and it’s easier to weed small sheets than big ones.

If you need some help, please give us a call.  Kitting labels for assembly lines allows the person applicator on the line to work off of one sheet… very convenient.  And customers love convenience.  Nice neat stacks of labels looks very professional.  When you get proficient at it, go buy yourself a shrink wrapper.