This article first appeared in the October 2024 issue of ProPrint.
Pictured above: (l-r) Dale Hawkins (Zünd Australia) and Marty West (Blueprint Digital)
After waiting 15 months to receive his Zünd flatbed cutter, soft signage and fabric specialist trade printer Marty West from Blueprint Digital in Sydney has significantly increased his productivity and capacity overnight.
West first placed an order for his Zünd G3 3XL-3200 in April 2023. Financial challenges experienced by Zünd’s reseller Starleaton at the time, meant the cutter that should have taken three months to arrive took almost 18 months to finally be installed – but it was worth the wait.
“We bought the Zünd, because we believe it is the best cutter in the industry, and it is now finally here,” West said.
“The Zünd is multifunctional and modular, and has the ability to not just cut our main print products – soft signage and fabrics – but can be upgraded with other tools to help us work with a whole range of different print products. By investing in a Zünd, we are future proofing our business as we move into additional print markets.
“We recently invested in the Durst P5 TEX iSub dye sublimation printer which is the best direct-to-fabric printer in the industry, so we also wanted to replicate this with the Zünd when it came to the cutter by purchasing the biggest and fastest in the industry. We now have the top of the range printer and cutter – and they perfectly complement each other.
Starleaton’s decision to enter voluntary administration earlier this year further delayed the already-late Zünd cutter ordered by Blueprint Digital, but just weeks later, Zünd Switzerland made the decision to create its own subsidiary and appoint Dale Hawkins as the managing director of the business.
“When Dale took on the role at Zünd Australia in March, he was able to work something out with Zünd so that we could get our machine. Since then, the installation process was very smooth,” West said.
The decision to invest in high-end equipment was a deliberate decision by Blueprint Digital to provide the best service to its industry customers.
“We are a wholesale trade printer,” West said. “With our expansion into new machinery, we are able to increase our capacity. With the Durst and Zünd, we can print a lot more – we can cut faster and turn jobs around much more efficiently.”
Hawkins said he was very pleased to see the arrival of the Zünd G3 3XL-3200 at Blueprint Digital.
“We are very pleased to finally install the Zünd at Blueprint Digital after almost 18 months. The order was originally placed by Zünd’s reseller at the time and they did not supply the product due to financial challenges,” Hawkins said.
“As soon as we created the new subsidiary – Zünd Australia – we were motivated to find a solution for Marty and his team. But we also knew we needed to earn that trust after the journey that he went on with the former Zünd reseller. It was clear to us that Marty was determined to purchase a Zünd even though he went through the issues relating to the delay and delivery.
“The order was re-signed with Zünd Australia in April 2024 and we are very pleased that his cutter has now been installed and is fully operational.
“Zünd cutting tables are modular and this will provide Marty’s soft signage and textiles business with options to add or retrofit tools and other accessories at a later stage. The Zünd digital cutter allows them to load a printed textile roll onto the unwinder and have the signage cut out automatically as Blueprint Digital’s system includes material transport system providing continuous cutting until the whole roll is complete.”
The Zünd G3 3XL-3200 at Blueprint Digital has been fitted with a driven rotary tool for textile cutting. The Z50 decagonal or 10-sided cutting blade is specifically designed to avoid getting caught in the textile weave. Blueprint’s Zünd also includes the central driven unwinder system that provides a smooth feed for textiles minimising creases and stretching that can happen with other unwinding approaches.
Zünd Australia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Zünd Switzerland and commenced business in March this year with Hawkins at the helm of the new organisation.
“The Zünd Australia team in place includes some of the best technical people in the digital cutting, application and system automation,” Hawkins said.
“Since we commenced operation, we have been servicing existing Zünd customers – some of which have been in the market for over two decades. Over the last few months, we have also provided existing customers with additional accessories and consumables, and installed several new Zünd digital cutters.
“We moved into our new Melbourne premises last month at Keys Road in Cheltenham and we will have a purpose-built, 150 square metre showroom operational from October featuring two operating machines – one G3 1800 x 2500 model and the S3 model with an extension table.
“This showroom will be available for customers to experience in-house training and the building will also include the offices for Zünd Australia.”
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