Shade & Shutter Expo
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
"Before purchasing Carlson Design's widest plotter/cutter model available, the WT-174", Shade & Shutter expo in beautiful Myrtle Beach were losing time and productivity cutting their material to the large sizes needed for their customers. "
Installation Details
| Model | Wide WT |
|---|---|
| Attachments | 28mm Rotary Blade |
| Plotter Width | 174" |
| Table | 20' |
| Blowers | -- |
| Applications | Shades |
| Materials Cut | Marine Vinyl, Shade Cloth, Sunbrella |
About Shade & Shutter Expo
Shade & Shutter Expo, located in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, offers custom fit, retractable and motorized window shades, awnings and much more. Owner and operator Danny Fergus started the company in 2003 with his wife, Julie, after realizing he could create a business out of a DIY shade kit he assembled in his garage. For the past 14 years Shade & Shutter has been providing their high quality, custom made products to businesses and residents all over the Myrtle Beach area, and aren’t slowing down. In fact, they’re doing the opposite with their newly installed plotter/cutter.
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Get Started!What was unique about this install?
Shade & Shutter Expo purchased the widest machine we provide, the WT-174″. The machine sits on a 20′ x 15′ table that the customer built himself and is vacuum-less. We typically always recommend vacuum to some degree to help secure the fabric to the table while it’s being cut. This ensures a clean, accurate cut. However, the material being cut at Shade & Shutter is 90% shade cloth which is a) an open weave which means vacuum would be lost and b) quite heavy so it likes to lay flat under it’s own weight. Running the machine at a slower speed can also help with a vacuum-less table situation. We started at 5 inches per second and eventually found we could cut at a full 15 inches per second once we were comfortable and confident the material was not going to move while being cut. Using Plotmaster, Danny and his team were able to very quickly create and nest the simple squares their shades are made from.
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- The WT-174″ is perfect for wide cut applications such as shades and awnings.
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- Calibrating… all ready to go.
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- The material spreader we initially attempted to use, we later found it was easier to just put the material on the table and roll it by hand.
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- Danny and his team learning to use Plotmaster and run the machine.
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- The WT in action cutting a black shade cloth material.
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- Material is taped down to help secure it when cutting close to the edges.
Real Results
The WT-174″ performed beautifully for Shade & Shutter Expo; it’s the perfect machine for their application. Allowing them to cut 2 – 3 pieces ranging anywhere from 30′ – 50′ a piece, they have upped their cutting production drastically with one operator running it half a day. By the end of the training, Danny was running production cuts and had caught up on all of their time-sensitive customers, proving the machines worth right then and there.
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- Clean, straight cuts all around.
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- Pulling our production pieces.
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- Learning the ropes on how to create patterns and run the machine.
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- Cutting in action.
Install & The solution
Installing such a large machine can be time consuming, but Danny saved us a lot of time by making sure the table was assembled and leveled. Installation was a breeze and setup the next two days nicely for focusing on software and running production cuts.
