#MachineryRow: The Zund
Office Sign Company has two locations: one downtown and a production facility in the industrial park of North Fargo. Ironically enough, our downtown location is off Machinery Row, while all of our heavy machinery can be found at production. Yes, it’s confusing. But it would be a missed opportunity if we didn’t welcome a new hashtag to the mix: #MachineryRow, featuring posts about magic-makin’ machines at your local signage company.
Now that we’ve justified the title, what sets Office Sign Company apart from other signage industries? Aside from the culture and the work ethic, it’s the quality of what comes out of our production facility each day. A large part of that is accomplished because of the machines we use, and the skilled staff to operate them. Today, we’re highlighting a machine that plays a crucial role in production. Allow us to introduce, the Zund [Z-oo-nd].
As with any production-related blog post, it’s best to reference the experts. With that, we’re bringing Jamey, our production manager, into the conversation to explain the capabilities of the Zund.
What is the Zund?
The Zund Digital Cutter is just what the name entails – it’s essentially a router that is capable of cutting through a variety of substrates. Our production facility was graced with the Zund’s presence about a year and a half ago. A much anticipated addition to the team, this machine pushes out everything from metal small name badges all the way up to 5’x10′ sheets of substrates.
Substrates
These “substrates” we speak of include a variety of materials. Common products that the Zund cuts every day include name badges, acrylic flush mount backers, vinyl graphics, foamcore, corrugated plastics, ACM panels, wood, cardboard, banners, and fabric – “to name a few.”
How Does it Work?
The efficient quality of the Zund is it’s ability to mirror images from the computer through our Pro Cut software.
“From there we add the necessary tools, blades or bits for the cutting process and then it gets sent right to the machine to get cut out. If it is a digital print we can print a barcode on our printed substrate and then the Zund will scan the barcode, read the registrations marks and then cut the file accordingly,” according to Jamey.
Depending on the project, the product does not require sanding or any finishing products once it goes through the Zund. It’s ready to go as soon as the machine is done cutting it!
“The Zund allows for ease of use. It quickly gets jobs done that would’ve required hand-cutting previously. It has a large table for large products, and has a feed table for streamlining long production runs.”
Other machines used for cutting/routing at our production facility include our large Multicam CNC router, lasers, engravers and plotters.
Product Examples
As Jamey mentioned, it can cut through a variety of substrates with little effort! That being said, precautions must be taken on any machine, and only four members of our staff are actually qualified to operate it. Here are a few projects that the Zund has allowed us to complete due to its precise routing capabilities.
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| Boxes and stamps provided by Drekker, display cut out by Zund |
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| Logo engraved, opening routed out by Zund |
