Wokingham based Ultimat decided to look at new cutter options. The manufacturer and supplier of picture mounts and frames recently upgraded their old Zünd PN M-1600 digital cutter for the latest S3 L-1600.
This article originally appeared in: Sign Africa.
‘It was founded in 2001 by friends Dru Cook and Christopher Neighbour. Alin Afloarei, Development Manager at Ultimat said, ‘We manufacture and supply to many sectors including cruise ships, hotels and retail. Our business USP is that we manufacture and assemble everything in-house. This in return gives us full control of our lead times and ability to meet customer expectations.’
Afloarei said, ‘Since the announcement from Zünd UK that the support on PN Series equipment will be limited due to parts becoming obsolete, we decided to look at what the new generation of Zünd cutters can offer. The Zünd plays a pivotal part in our business, so we needed to reduce any uncertainty and ensure we had a fully working cutter at all times.’
Cook and Afloarei visited the Zünd UK state-of-the art showroom in St. Albans for a product demonstration and took materials for test cuts with them. Afloarei explained, ‘We have a lot of machinery at Ultimat and the customer service from Zünd is by far the greatest. So, it was a no brainer to keep loyal to the brand for our next purchase.’ During the demonstration, Cook and Afloarei were blown away by the cutting speed and the advanced features of the latest Zünd cutters.
Afloarei said, ‘We are very pleased with our new S3 M-1600 cutter and the new capabilities it has given us. Our old PN M-1600 cutter was a static system but for our new cutter we opted for the conveyorised system with full back and front extension and added the Over Cutter Camera (OCC). Now, thanks to the versatility of the new Zünd Cutter, not only can we produce picture mounts, but we also cut print jobs thanks to the OCC. In the past we used to spend hours or even days cutting print jobs by hand, now with the S3 M-1600 cutter, this can be done within minutes. Our productivity has also increased by at least 50%. For example, the cutter is always working thanks to the extension tables for loading and unloading. Our previous cutter was static, so we had to pause the cutter every time we loaded and unloaded. Now, we can do this simultaneously whilst the cutter in processing picture mounts or print jobs.’