The college’s printing facility and graphic design program  came closer together thanks to the introduction of a new device, the Zund Cutter, a device used to cut out multiple designs and shapes out of paper for use by designers.

Gerald Trotter, manager of Printing Services, discussed the use and purpose of the new device. “We brought it in around November, and our use for it is to increase productivity and safety. We’d typically cut any boards or materials by hand…this is now a more automated system so now when we produce any kind of cut material we can just program it in, move the material from a wide format printer to the cutter, and cut it out that way.”

Trotter explained the long process to get the new device, “MATC has been working on this for over two years now. This was something I wrote into a proposal two years ago, and last year we were able to get it to go through. It’s only been running for a few months.” As of press time the device is currently set up only for production use, but could be used in other programs going forward. “The graphic design department has a packaging program. As they created their packaging, they were just printing on card stock paper and cut it out by hand. The cutter could do that for them,” Trotter said. “Thats a real world situation to show the students how the cutter can increase productivity.”

Graphic design instructor, Craig Smallish, stated, “Having this technology on hand here is a great experience for students. It’s not the type of machine we see in every printing shop, but it’s high- end technology that really gives them a great advantage.”