Optimum Signs has installed an Esko Kongsberg X24 digital cutting table which it acquired through CMYUK.
The machine, which is arranged in the standard sign configuration, comes complete with a router, a kiss/cut knife, a drag knife and a camera system. It also comprises a conveyorised bed for handling roll-to-roll media.
The Preston-based company decided to invest in a cutting table after being hired to complete a sizeable trade job for a major retail collaboration. The job involved applying standard vinyl to 16,000 pre–routed lacquered MDF panels, but the customer developed an issue with its CNC router and was about to pull the plug on the project when Matt Austin, owner and managing director of Optimum Signs, decided to step in and buy suitable equipment himself.
Mr Austin visited CMYUK’s showroom in Shrewsbury, where he was introduced to the X24. Now installed in Lancashire, the cutting table automates many processes, saving time and money. For example, Optimum produces 750 signs every three to four months on a constant rollover for one client. This previously took up to three days to produce, but the X24 has reduced this to four hours.
‘When we delivered this job for the first time, the comment that immediately came back was had we bought these in from somewhere else?’ Mr Austin said. ‘The quality was so much better. Previously we had been applying 750 graphics to 750 panels, now we apply graphics to four large panels and the X24 does the rest.
‘It’s revolutionised the way we work. We’re doing so much stuff on it. It’s unbelievable. It’s such an amazing machine. I didn’t realise it but we would push a client to work in a certain way because we didn’t want to have to buy stuff in, now I’m pushing for all sorts of things.’
