Over the past several years, computer cutting of window film for your auto has become quite popular, and some companies "Boast" the fact that they use this technology when tinting your auto. Sometimes this will allow the company to charge you more for their services, convincing you that this is the "safest" or "best" way to do the job.
In our effort to stay on top and ahead of the game, we too purchased a plotter and "program" for automotive window tinting several years back. We tried out this technology for a few months, even having untrained office personnel assist with entering the data into the program, and cutting the patterns out for the auto technicians. We discovered during our trial period that the patterns for the programs do not always fit correctly and more often than not need to be touched up for a perfect installation.
Keep in mind that we are a busy retail shop that offers the consumer multiple types of tint in various shades. I mention this because on any given day we may have one customer with a 2009 Lexus 4door sedan, who chooses the "ceramic" film, another with a 1995 Chevy Monte Carlo who chooses the "hybrid metal" film, and yet another with a 2011 Hummer H3 who chooses a different type of film. Simply put we do a variety of autos in a variety of films, we are not cutting out 5 Honda Civic 4 door cars in the same type of film, like an auto dealer would be doing. Looking up the pattern based on the year, make and model of a vehicle, setting up the plotter with the appropriate type of film and shades required, was not saving us any time, not to mention the material we were wasting as a result of the pattern being cut out. In addition, our highly trained experienced technicians were growing increasingly agitated by the multi-step process, insisting that it was slowing them down.
We had a contest between our "machine" and our two top technicians to see which was faster and more accurate at cutting the film for the same vehicle, while being timed. I have to admit that we were not surprised to prove that the technicians had the film cut, in place, and were starting to "shrink" the back glass film, before the machine cut pattern was completed and ready for weeding.
After our little contest, we retired our plotter and program from its auto tinting career. Unfortunately,with this technology, if the machine and computer program can be afforded, virtually any one with little to no experience may think they can do automotive window tinting. This is not true, however, as window tinting is a SKILL that requires human logic. Without knowledge and skill you get a novice applying an ill fitting pattern on a car. Furthermore, what if your machine breaks down or the program experiences issues, then what are you going to do? Our expert technicians have the knowledge and skill that are not provided by a machine, and they don't break down or go off line.
We still own the machine and have put it to good use doing vinyl graphics and signage for commercial customers. In our expert opinion this is the best use of the machine and our professional time, leaving the automotive window tinting in the "hands" of our technicians.
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