Download Types of cutting plotter

NAME: TELE BLESSING
COLLEGE: ENGINEERING.
DEPARTMENT: MECHANICAL ENGINEERING.
COURSE: GST 115 (INTRODUCTION TO ICT)
TITLE: ASSIGNMENT
DATE: 18/12/14.
A brief note on the computer plotter
The plotter is a computer printer for printing vector graphics. In the Past, plotters were
used in applications such as computer aided Design, though they have generally been
replaced with wide format.
Conventional printers. A plotter gives a hard copy of the output. It Draws pictures on
paper using a pen. Plotters are used to print Designs of ships and machines, plans for
buildings and so on. There are different kinds of plotters which are name below
pen plotter
Pen plotters print by moving a pen or other instrument across the surface of a piece of
paper. This means that plotters are vector graphics devices, rather than raster graphics as
with other printers.
Pen plotters can draw complex line art, including text, but do so slowly because of the
mechanical movement of the pens. They are often incapable of efficiently creating a solid
region of color, but can hatch an area by drawing a number of close, regular lines.
Plotters offered the fastest way to efficiently produce very large drawings or color higher
solution vector based artwork when computer memory was very expensive and processor
power was very limited, and other types of printers had limited graphic output
capabilities.
Pen plotters have essentially become obsolete, and have been replaced by large format
Inkjet printers and LED toner based printers. Such devices may still understand vector
languages originally designed for plotter use, because in many uses, they offer a more
efficient alternative to raster data.
Unlike other printer types, pen plotter speed is measured by pen speed and acceleration
rate, instead of by page printing speed. A pen plotter's speed is primarily limited by the
type of pen used, so the choice of pen is a key factor in pen plotter output speed. Indeed,
most modern pen plotters have commands to control slewing speed, depending on the
type of pen currently in use.
Cutting plotters
Cutting plotters use knives to cut into a piece of material (such as paper, mylar or vinyl)
that is lying on the flat surface area of the plotter. It is achieved because the cutting
plotter is connected to a computer, which is equipped with specialized cutting design or
drawing computer software programs. Those computer software programs are responsible
for sending the necessary cutting dimensions or designs in order to command the cutting
knife to produce the correct project cutting needs.[1] In recent years the use of cutting
plotters (generally called diecut machines) has become popular with home enthusiasts of
paper crafts such as card making and scrapbooking. Such tools allow desired card shapes
to be cut out very precisely, and repeated perfectly identically.
Types of cutting plotter
A vinyl sign cutter (sometimes known as a cutting plotter) is used by professional poster
and billboard sign making businesses to produce weather resistant signs, posters, and
billboards using self-colored adhesive backed vinyl film that has a removable paper
Backing material. The vinyl can also be applied to car bodies and windows for large,
bright company advertising and to sailboat transoms. A similar process is used to cut
tinted vinyl for automotive windows. Colors available are generally limited only by the
collection of vinyl on hand. To prevent creasing of the material, it is stored in rolls.
Typical vinyl roll sizes are 15inch, 24inch, 36inch and 48inch widths.
Generally the hardware is identical to a traditional plotter except that the ink pen is
replaced by a very sharp knife that is used to cut out each shape, and the plotter may have
a pressure control to adjust how hard the knife presses down into the vinyl film, allowing
designs to be fully or partly cut out.
Generally it is preferred that only the upper surface with the vinyl is cut, but the backing
surface is not completely cut through. Completely loose pieces cut out of the backing
material may fall out and jam the plotter roll feed or the cutter head.
The vinyl knife is usually shaped like a plotter pen and is also mounted in ball bearings
so that the knife edge rotates to face the correct direction as the plotter head moves. Sign
cutters are primarily used to produce single color line art. Several colors can be cut
separately and then overlaid, but the process quickly becomes cumbersome for more than
a couple of hues. Sign cutting plotters are in decline in some applications, such as general
billboard design, where wide format inkjet printers that use solvent based inks are
employed to print directly onto a variety of materials. Cutting plotters are often relied
upon for precision contour cutting of graphics produced by wide format inkjet printers –
for example to produce window or car graphics, or shaped stickers.
Static cutting table
A static cutting table is a type of cutting plotter used a large flat vacuum table. It is used
for cutting non rigid and porous material such as textiles, foam, or leather, that may be
too difficult or impossible to cut with roll fed plotters. Static cutters can also cut much
thicker and heavier materials than a typical rol lfed or sheetfed plotter is capable of
handling. The surface of the table has a series of small pinholes drilled in it. Material is
placed on the table, and a coversheet of plastic or paper is overlaid onto the material to be
cut. A vacuum pump is turned on, and air pressure pushes down on the coversheet to hold
the material in place. The table then operates like a normal vector plotter, using various
cutting tools to cut holes or slits into the fabric. The coversheet is also cut, which may
lead to a slight loss of vacuum around the edges of the coversheet, but this loss is not
Significant.