Cutting is its own line in a quote. It is estimated from the actual cut paths of a group's nest on the cutter you chose, so it follows the parts, the material and the machine.
When a group gets a cut time#
A material group has a cut time when all of these are true:
- it has an up-to-date nest (see Nesting and yield);
- it has a cutter: the one picked on its production card, else the team's default cutter;
- its material's Cut method isn't No cutting.
A card without a cutter shows a No machine badge. Add or pick a cutter to add cut time to the quote.
What goes into it#
The estimate follows the knife along every piece of the nest, at the material's Cutting speed (or the cutter's default speed when the material has none), never faster than the cutter's max speed, and repeats each contour for the material's Passes. The cutter's acceleration, corner settings, travel speed, beds and registration do the rest. The full model is on Cutting machines.
The production card shows the total and a bar with its parts:
| Part | What it is |
|---|---|
| Setup | The cutter's job setup, once. |
| Registration | Reading the registration marks, on every bed. |
| Bed advances | Conveyor advances between beds (or sheet changes on a flatbed without a conveyor). |
| Cutting | The knife moving along the cut lines, slowing into corners. |
| Corner lifts | Tangential knives lifting and turning at sharp corners. |
| Plunge / lift | Putting the knife in and taking it out, once per contour. |
| Travel | Tool-up moves between contours, in a short route. |
Only the moving parts (cutting, corner lifts, plunge and lift, travel) are multiplied by the cutter's efficiency factor.
Cost and price#
- Cost = hours × the cutter's Hourly cost.
- Price = the larger of the cutter's Minimum charge and hours × its Hourly rate.
Until the cutter has an hourly rate, cutting adds nothing to the price. The minimum charge applies to each material group's cutting separately.
Making it match your machine#
Published speeds are ceilings, and shops cut slower. If quoted cut times don't match the floor:
- On the cutter's settings page, run a Test cut close to your usual work, cut the same job on the machine and time it.
- Enter the time in Calibrate from a timed job and apply the suggested efficiency factor.
- If one material is always off, set its own Cutting speed or Passes in the material library instead.
Changing the cutter re-prices the team's nested estimates. See Cutting machines.
Sheet and offset groups#
Groups on the Sheets and Offset routes are cut per form: each form's cut time (or its guillotine program) is counted once for every sheet printed from it.
- Paper whose parts are all rectangles, printed on a press, is cut on the team's guillotine: setup, then for each pile of sheets (a lift) the jogging and one stroke per cut. It is priced on the guillotine's rates and minimum charge.
- Everything else (shaped parts, rigid boards, cut-through stock, sheets from a flatbed printer) is timed on the cutting table as above, on each form's cut paths. A box's form includes its creases and inner cuts as well as its outline (see Cartons and boxes).
A group's card can pick Cut with: Auto (the rule above), Guillotine, Cutter or None. With no guillotine, the card says "No guillotine: cutting isn't priced."
What isn't counted#
Tool changes, per-axis speed limits, weeding, loading the roll and operator breaks aren't in the estimate. Include them in the setup time or the efficiency factor if they matter to you. Cut paths are the parts' outlines; only groups with an up-to-date nest are timed.