Far from black and white

A flatbed cutter is not for everyone. For one thing, it needs a heck of a lot of space, which means to invest in one you have got to have a real need for it. If you do have the need, it is probably because you have either bought a new flatbed printer or upgraded your existing one. Most investors in flatbed printing technology will tell you that if they did not immediately stretch to purchase a flatbed cutter to go with it, they did so very soon after. Printing without finishing can really interrupt your production flow and create serious bottlenecks, so that is where your flatbed cutter comes in.

Earlier in the year I looked at the new Summa flatbed aimed at the entry-mid range market, so I thought this month I would try out the only world-wide maker of flatbed cutting machinery which is still manufacturing in the UK: Blackman and White, with the Versa-Tech.

I spoke with Mark Baker of CIM Signs and Graphics in Norwich who bought a Versa-Tech last Christmas and he agreed that a ‘chicken and egg’ situation was their catalyst to investing in wide-format cutting. They were outsourcing the finer cutting jobs that could not be done to standard by hand and when they thought about buying their first digital cutter, it meant they had to upgrade their flatbed printer at the same time because the one they had would soon be outrun by the capabilities of the cutter.



The Versa-Tech is the latest machine in the MasterCut range, which comes in three sizes—1.6, 2, and 3.2m wide cutting tables—and is aimed at medium to large-scale production facilities. It comes with a drop-in knife module and routing module as standard and the laser module is optional at extra cost. This is good news as it gives you extended capabilities immediately, without any hidden costs.

As expected, there is a wide range of tools to choose from for the Versa-Tech, depending on the type of job you are working on. These include Fixed, Rotary , Oscillating, and Driven Rotary knives, Rotary punch, Creaser, 45 degree bevelled cutter, and Plotter pen.

Making an impression

The 2.5kw router module works at speeds of around 60,000 RPM. In extremely high speed working environments, ordinary air-cooled bearings cannot endure this high rotate speed for long periods of time. Liquid cooling provides more consistent temperature control of the bearings, allowing the spindle to run at full speed and power without worrying about overheating or spindle burn-out, preserving the router for longer use. If you want to cut textiles or some acrylics, the operator can simply remove the routing module and replace it with the laser module. I have not seen this done, but I am reliably told that this will take no longer than ten minutes.

When using the laser, the patented belt draws a strong vacuum to stop materials moving or skewing. The bed also has a reverse blow to help remove dust and particles more easily. According to Blackman and White, the laser module will cut a wide variety of materials including textiles and composites, and will even route acrylics up to 20mm thick, giving the finished article a highly finished, polished edge and an ability to route more intricate designs.

According to CIM, some flatbed cutters they researched could not cut substrates such as corrugated and display board properly on test. Only the higher end manufacturers could, and for CIM, the high cost was a sticking point. This was reportedly until they saw the Versa-Tech at FESPA 2013.

Size matters

Let us talk about the bottleneck again. Some issues arise in only being able to cut one board at a time. The 3.2m wide version of the Versa-Tech cutter will manage two 1.2 x 2.4m (4 x 8ft) boards as one in a ‘pendulum’ style—cutting on one end of the bed while offloading takes place on the other end. It might not sound like a big thing but when speed matters, size does too.


Addressable cutting dimensions of 1.6 m (63") and 3.2 m (126") and a standard length of 3.2m (126") are easily navigated by the dual X axis, one Y axis servo motor system.



For handling textiles or roll media, a material roll holding system can be added to the feed-end of the cutting table and comes with a standard 3" core diameter. It is really quite impressive to see how the material is handled by the automatic conveyor, which transports and holds the roll material tight, then the vacuum system kicks in and the cut-ting begins. Baker at CIM confirmed that because they ordered the conveyor table this now means they are set to handle large rolls of printed posters for example, which can then be digitally cut to size instead of individually printed and cut one at a time.

Made in the UK

So here is the thing. This machine is born and bred in the UK. The company has a 50 year heritage of engineering cutting machines and produced its first XY cutter over 20 years ago. The Versa-Tech is conceived, built and serviced by British engineers. Does this matter? According to CIM it matters a lot—for them, they felt re-assured that should anything go wrong they are not waiting days for parts. All the nuts and bolts of the machine are made here in the UK. They have also run their machine solidly since it was installed at Christmas 2013 and, according to Baker, they have not looked back since.


In conclusion, this is an all-round belter of a machine and it is within reach price-wise for most medium sized sign-makers to invest in. But be warned, if you purchase a decent dig-ital flatbed cutter, you may just want to look at a new flatbed printer at the same time.



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