When Daytona Visual opened its doors for business back in 1979, the company was set up as a screen print company with a distinct eye for employing innovation. Always aiming to push the boundaries, Daytona was one of the first companies to produce four-colour screen print on a commercial basis for point of sale and in-store applications. Today, the Daytona customer base includes some of the world’s leading companies, brands, agencies and retailers; something the company puts down to its combination of expert staff and investment in leading technology.

Continued investment in technology over the last two years has seen Daytona purchase two further flatbed digital printers, a continuous UV cured roll-fed printer and a Fotoba automated roll cutter as well as a DYSS X5-1630C Digital Die Cutter with an automatic sheet feeder from AG/CAD. With a cumulative spend in excess of £700,000; the Tamworth Company has improved lead-times and productivity on its short to medium run POS and packaging projects.

Why Buy a Digital Cutting Table?

Whilst the three printers have been installed to improve productivity and capacity, the DYSS X5-1630C was installed to improve process control as well as throughput, whilst reducing costs. Discussing the reasoning behind buying the DYSS, Daytona Visual’s Technical Director, Mr. Oliver Wassall explains:

We have two platen presses and we use an external supplier to manufacture the cutting formes. However, our die cutters can’t always facilitate the large format sheet sizes available on our large format digital flat beds that can be up to 3m by 1.6m. To make full use of the bed size, we had to get large cutting formes produced externally and then send these and the large format sheets to an external supplier for cutting. The sheet sizes and quantities could often make this a logistical problem that disrupted our workflow. This is why we invested in the DYSS digital die cutter. It has improved lead-times, throughput and workflow whilst giving us more flexibility.

The company specified a DYSS machine from AG/CAD mainly because of its existing relationship. Daytona bought a KASEMAKE KM603A cutting table from AG/CAD over 15 years ago for its prototype work. The build quality, reliability, consistency and customer support associated with the KM603A and the three licences of KASEMAKE CAD software were key factors in the DYSS purchase. Mr. Wassall continues:

In the time that we’ve had the KM machine, it’s never failed us - and the service has been outstanding. The new DYSS machine is for the production floor whilst the KASEMAKE KM603A will stay in the design department producing prototypes. Additionally, our KASEMAKE CAD software accommodates all our design needs. It’s even used in our CNC routing department.

Using the DYSS as a Production Machine

The ability of the DYSS to cut, crease, score and fold the most intricate of designs has made it a necessity for prototyping and small batch sample production of complex designs for many print, packaging and signmaking businesses. Especially when supported by the industry leading KASEMAKE CAD software. However, Daytona has employed the DYSS mainly as a production machine, processing large format sheets of 1.6m by 3m, sometimes in quantities up to 500 sheets and above where it makes sense to do so.

To do this, Daytona specified a sheet-feeding device to automatically load the DYSS X5. The sheet feeder is 3m by 1.6m wide and can support a maximum load of up to 800kg with a total stack height of 650mm. Furthermore, the suction cup pressure of the pneumatic autoloader can be adjusted to lift the thinnest, most sensitive and lightweight materials through to thick and heavy sheets. For Daytona, this bolt-on feature was a must, as Mr. Wassall continues:

We run two shifts and the DYSS was brought-in to streamline our production. The new TruPress large format printer is capable of high-quality printing at speeds of up to 150sq/m per hour. Depending upon the complexity of the cutting profile, the DYSS X5 easily keeps pace with the printer. With the automatic feeder, we can load 100’s of sheets and we just need one operator to remove the sheets, strip and palletise them for collation or shipping. Without the loading table, our processing speed would have required one operator for loading the DYSS and another unloading. As the DYSS X5 runs continuously for two shifts each day, this could potentially be two additional staff - a cost saved by using the auto loader.

Countless Benefits With The DYSS

The installation of the DYSS X5 with its automatic loader has instantly improved through-put, workflow and process control; but the benefits don’t stop there. By much reducing subcontracting out large format cutting and the associated cutting forme production and costs, the savings recouped will pay for the complete DYSS installation in less than three years. This time period doesn’t even take into account the labour reduction of up to two members of staff for loading the DYSS, which is another huge saving. To put the cutting forme savings in perspective, Mr. Wassall concludes:

We used to store anything from 200 to 400 cutting formes at any one time. This is now less than 100 tools. This is saving factory floor space in the region of 4m by 10m, this extra space has been added to our ‘finishing’ area. The cost of regularly producing these cutting formes was significant. Now, we have almost eliminated the cutting forme cost as well as bringing the majority of the short to medium run externally subcontracted work back in-house. The cost savings are significant and most importantly we are in complete control of our production process; and this can take as much as 2-3 days off our lead-times. We have achieved all this, whilst gaining significant capacity that will help us to continue our growth strategy.