Elgin, Illinois-based NGS Printing, which makes screenprinted and digital graphics and serves a variety of national consumer product companies and retail chains, has become the first sign and graphics company in North America to purchase and install a Zünd D3 dual-beam cutting system.

According to a joint press release, NGS was needing to increase throughput but expected that the only solution would be either to purchase multiple machines or add a third shift in its finishing department.

“Because of the pressure to continually reduce turnaround times, our goal was to increase our throughput by at least 50 percent,”says Erik Landrowski, NGS Printing's chief operating officer, adding that the company's finishing department is a bottleneck when it comes to its production processes, often forcing the company to pay employee overtime costs.

The dual-beam D3 features two independently operating heads that work simultaneously, which both increases capacity and saves on time and space. In addition to routing, creasing and knife-cutting capabilities, the D3 configuration also includes an automatic board feeder and extension of the off-load area, eliminating unnecessary labor and facilitating a non-stop production workflow.

Landrowski says he expects to see 75 percent to 85 percent speed improvement on jobs involving smaller parts and larger sheet sizes; such jobs constitute about half of the company's total production.

Landrowski says his company bought its first Zünd digital die-cutting machine in 2005,“and after 11 years of nearly 18-hour non-stop daily production, it is still operating efficiently today.”

Along with the Zünd cutters, NGS Printing also operates an Inca Onset and Fujifilm Acuity F digital wide-format printers and a variety of screen printing machines made by M&R Companies.

With its headquarters in Franklin, Wisconsin, Zünd America is the U.S. subsidiary of Switzerland-based Zünd Systemtechnik AG, a family-owned business with decades of experience making cutting machines.