ROUTING Feature
In-house routing could be a route to success Issues to consider
Deciding whether to invest in a router could be a make or break decision for a sign company. The purchase cost may be tens of thousands of pounds but the potential income they can generate over the years is many times this. CNC routers cut and machine a
range of materials, including hard and soft woods, plastics, acrylics, composite materials, foam products, aluminium, steel, and more. They are used to create three dimensional surfaces out of flat materials, making more interesting and attention grabbing signs that sell for far more than their two dimensional counterparts. With a router producing several of
the same or similar items quick and easy. By the time you’ve cut one or two letters by hand, even without accidental slips, a router can have cut the whole alphabet, with perfectly smooth curves and consistent quality letter after letter. Routers also enable scaling to be
Tekcel routers have always included precision ballscrew drives on every axis.
easily adjusted and saving files for repeat jobs is made simple. A sign company with an in-house router can improve productivity
dramatically and save a lot of time and money compared to hand cutting or outsourcing work. A router is not only a boost to existing work; it means that business will be able to expands its capabilities by offering new products and new applications. That’s added value for existing customers and the opportunity to develop new markets and bring in additional income streams for the sign maker.
Knowing the right time to make that investment isn’t easy, every company has different issues to consider. These include, but aren’t limited to, how much work are you outsourcing and how much is it costing? Have you got the necessary space, do your employees have the skills and time to take on this type of work? How much extra work would it bring in, and how much income? What about staff training, new staff or overtime? Whatever router you choose,
certain features are a must and one of these is ease of use in both software and hardware. Leading machine manufacturers have increased user friendliness immensely over recent years, making it easier than ever to achieve perfect accuracy and allow your creativity come to life.
User friendly operation
Tekcel CNC Solutions is a company with a wealth of knowledge and experience of CNC routers. It has also developed a comprehensive range of router cutters and tooling that’s tried and tested in-house across a broad range of signmaking applications and materials. The company designs its routers to ensure that even
first time router owners can produce excellent results quickly. An easy to use, joystick driven interface allows operators to control the router and access a simple menu system. From there, it’s a touch button operation to call up jobs from the PC workstation and press ‘go’. Good user-friendliness means a business can get a return on their investment quickly as the time it takes for new operators to get up to speed is measured in days rather than weeks or months. Tekcel router owner, David Hellings from SLS in
Sheffield concurs, saying: “... There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing your investment in new technology pay off from Day One. ...” Other factors such as versatility, cost and size are just
as important to consider before deciding which machine to purchase. Should you think about the work you do today, or try and plan for the future? Liam Hodson of AXYZ says “Sometimes a customer is
looking for a machine that matches the money they have available to spend at that exact time, so they might be expecting to buy the smallest machine, rather than thinking about future development. But as their business grows, their needs will develop and change; this should be taken this into account so that they don’t outgrow their router in a couple of years. But even in tough economic times money alone is not
the deciding factor, says Liam. “Build quality reliability and versatility, along with
User friendly operation is a major consideration when choosing a router. 24 Sign Update ISSUE 125 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010
service back up are also crucial in customers choosing routers from AXYZ International,” he says.
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