NGS Printing is excited to announce the purchase and installation of their second D3 L-3200 cutting system. The ultra-productive D3 cutting system from Zünd features two independently operating heads seamlessly working together, thereby increasing capacity as well as saving time and space. In addition to routing, creasing, and knife-cutting capabilities, both NGS cutter configurations also include an automatic board-feeder and extension of the off-load area, which eliminates unnecessary labor and facilitates a non-stop production workflow.
Having originally seen the potential for the D3 at DRUPA 2016, NGS became the first sign & graphics D3 install in North America. Says Owen Scheppman: “We’ve had a range of different finishing systems on our floor over the past decade, but nothing has been quite as ground breaking as the Zünd D3 system. Now, a year later, we feel Zünd really went the extra mile to work with us and has taken our suggested improvements to heart. Especially with the continued optimization of the algorithms, we feel Zünd is genuinely ahead of their competition in terms of advancing the technology in the digital finishing market. This made the decision to buy a second D3 all that much easier.”
Particularly when it comes to routing, NGS Printing feels that bits, spindles, and the physical stresses exerted on the materials have reached a point where processing speeds have inevitably plateaued. The company is therefore particularly appreciative of the efforts Zünd has made to maximize output from a single machine: “NGS tries to be on the bleeding edge of innovative technologies, and Zünd has proven to be the one company thinking outside the box to achieve more output and strive for 100% efficiency,” adds Erik Landrowski.
NGS produces display graphics and retail signage utilizing a very wide variety of materials including Sintra®, styrene, static cling, magnetics, foamboards, acrylic, PETG, polycarbonate, and Paper. “Because of the pressure to continually reduce turnaround times, our goal was to increase our throughput by at least 50%,” continues Scheppman. “A year ago, we viewed the D3 as a way to get as much as twice the output from the same footprint and labor cost, and that belief has held true.”
With digital printing equipment only getting faster and lead times ever shorter, NGS continues to foresee a growing bottleneck in the finishing department. Concludes Scheppman: “Faster printers leave us with few alternatives to keep up. We try to keep our finishing in-house, thus our best solution is adding capacity with more efficient machinery. With Zünd, we have opted for investing in our second D3 which continues to be the most productive digital finishing system in the world and will help us stay ahead of the curve.”
