Automated Cutters for Sailmaking

Aeronaut's Automated Cutters are widely considered to be the best cutter for the job in sailmaking. Accurate, reliable and low maintenance, they set the standard. Aeronaut Automation started back in the mid 80s as Aeronaut Sails. We'd bought a pen plotter and found that there was no software around which was suitable for getting CAD drawings of anything other than a sail panel to plot… so we wrote the software.

Ten years later, another sailmaker wanted a better cutter than anything he could buy, so he asked Aeronaut to make one. In that first batch of cutters was the first D4 stringer, 5 metres wide. Now, almost all the big lofts and production facilities run Aeronaut blade or laser cutters and membrane sails everywhere are made on Aeronaut stringers.

Aeronaut takes sailmaking seriously and makes the cutters to suit. Accurate enough for one design, heavy duty enough for super yacht sails, fast enough for production lofts and well enough priced that the smallest loft can afford an Aeronaut cutter.

For most work, a single rotary blade tool will do the job. Nylon, Dacron, Spectra, Dyneema, carbon, Cuban Fibre, acrylic cover material… a rotary blade will cut them all. And for difficult sailcloths, Aeronaut's Cam-lock rotary blade can be locked off to become a soft drag blade.

Aeronaut cutters have concentric marker holders which retain the offset between the blade and marker, whatever the size, so seam allowances are properly accurate. A range of pens can be fitted from pressurised ball points to durable plastic tipped markers for spinnakers and laminates. You can fit a sign blade to the pen holder for cutting insignia cloth for sail numbers and lettering.

Aeronaut has been at the forefront of membrane sail production since 1996. Working with Fraser Sails and then Doyle Fraser, Aeronaut developed the yarn head and laying system, starting with 5 metre wide gantries to the current 12 metre wide by 100 metre long fibre laying systems. We've supplied dozens of wide span stringers, yarn heads and laminators to production lofts all over the world and it's more than likely that a membrane sail wasn't made in Nevada, it was made with an Aeronaut stringer.

The Tools of Your Trade

There's no best cutter for sailmaking. A laser cutter is the best for most Nylon, Dacron, Kevlar and polyester laminates but not much good for carbon. A blade cutter will cut everything but doesn't have the speed, ease of use and edge sealing of a laser cutter. Most large production lofts will have both blade and laser cutters but if you're a smaller loft and just one one cutter, the best for the job depends on your materials and market. Contact Aeronaut for advice on this.

Essential

Aeronaut's entry level Elektron Mono LC or Ikon cutters are high performance, well-priced automated cutters which are the standard sailcloth cutter in many sail lofts, large and small. Designed by sailmakers for sailmakers, the Elektron Mono and Ikon are the best in their class.

Efficiency

A low-power Elektron Laser can be the most efficient cutter of all for a small loft. Accurate and easy to use, a laser doesn't have to be watched over like a blade cutter, especially on spinnaker Nylon. While a low power laser cuts cruise weight Dacron at a fairly slow speed, you can leave it to do the work while you get on with something else making this a productive solution.

Production

High power lasers like the Elektron P150 are great for production lofts. They have the power to speed through heavy cruise wovens and laminates but the chassis is agile and accurate enough for lighter fabrics and one designs. Aeronaut laser cutters are low maintenance, reliable industrial strength cutters for sailmakers.

Cam-lock Quick Change Tools

All Aeronaut blade cutters use quick change tools. On the Elektron Mono or Ikon, Cam-lock tools can be changed by hand in a few seconds so you can fit the tools you need, when you need.

The Cam-lock tool range includes 18mm, 28mm and 45mm rotary blades, tangential or drag knives with various depth stops for normal and high friction materials, creasing and scoring tools in a wide range of profiles and drill-punch sizes from pin to over 25mm. Drill-punch inserts are easy to sharpen and exchange.

Software, Nesting and Technology

Nesting & Control

Aeronaut's Tangent software is a fast, powerful and modern nesting and cutter control program that can save you hours when nesting and cutting.

Autonesting

Fast and efficient autonesting can pay for a cutting system in months if your fabric is expensive - and isn't waste fabric the most expensive fabric in your business?

Inkjet Printing

Inkjet printing is the fastest and most reliable way to do pattern numbers, markings and reference text on almost any fabric.

15 years of great service... what is there to complain about?

AM

Window furnishings.
Actually, your cutter can cut everything. We also use it for hard materials (Cordura, thick foams and polyethylene, etc.) rigs, bags and so on. For this just increase the pressure.

A.K

Sporting Goods
Advantages of the Aeronaut cutter are: 1. Accuracy and neatness of details is much more better. 2. Possibility to cut various materials and multilayers for some fabrics (with good airporosity). 3. More reliable work 24 hours per day 7 days a week.

P.H.

Recreational Products NSW
Aeronaut software is by far the best in the industry and was the swaying factor in our decision to buy an Aeronaut cutter.

M.C.

Window Furnishings.
All our Tensioned Fabric Structures are cut on the plotter we have never had accuracy issues. 18 years this year, more square meters than I’d care to think about and still going strong.

N.M.

Tension structures & shade sails
At that price? We can aﬀord to buy two... (And they bought six.)

B.F.

Window furnishings
Buying a cutter from Aeronaut Automation has been one of the best decisions we have made in the last 10 years.

S.L.

Shade structures
Buying an Aeronaut cutter has improved accuracy and reduced waste. Production time has been greatly improved.

B.M.

Fabric structures
I am impressed by our Aeronaut machine. It is absurd to make comparisons between Aeronaut and XxxXxxx product. If Aeronaut is a cutter then XxxXxxx is a toy.

A. K.

Paragliders
I called five of your customers. You can't buy goodwill like that. You can expect our order this morning.

A.C.

Blind maker
I don't know what we would do without it. I could not imagine going back to working in the old way.

M.B.

Sailmaking
I just cut some medium weight kevlar sails, I'm still impressed by the speed and accuracy the Aeronaut cutter runs. Very nice when I have to work on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

J.H.

Denmark
I just want to say, this week we have going hard, 20 hours a day for 5 straight days and the Aeronaut machine hasn't missed a beat. Just wanted to congratulate you on a fine piece of machinery.

T.H.

Short run packaging
I knew within five minutes of seeing an Aeronaut cutter that I was going to buy it.

B.F.

Soft furnishings.
I must admit the more I use your machine more I am in love with it. It's a wonderful machine.

B.V.

India
I saw one of the new Aeronaut tables last week at XXXX Sails, a very smart set up. I can honestly say I don't know of anyone who has anything but praise for Aeronaut's installations here in the UK.

A.S

Cloth Supplier. UK.
I'm impressed by Aeronaut's practical approach instead of the marketing approaches of Xxxxxx, Xxxxxx, Xxxx Xxxxxx etc.

T.G.

Manufacturing Consultant UK
If you are looking for an endorsement for Aeronaut, mine would be 110% Yes!

T.R.

Blind Maker USA.
If you were thinking of getting an Aeronaut cutting system, just do it!!… You won’t regret it!!!

S.L.

Shade structures
In comparison with our old xxxxxx machine, cutting speed have increased (around 20-40%).

M.W.

Sailmaker
In my experience the Aeronaut is very good. It is simple and robust, and is able to be maintained with a limited skill set.

B.H.

Sailmaker
It is incredible what our Aeronaut cutter has allowed us to achieve in production and technical add-on to our business.

T.R.

Blind Maker USA.
It was the Aeronaut software which was the clincher. The software was the best we saw anywhere.

M.W.

Automotive Upholstery
Many thanks and well done on a fantastic product.

R. H.

Blind Maker
Next time, I won't buy just one Aeronaut cutter, I'll buy two or three!

F.C.

Window shades
Our Aeronaut cutter has fully fulfilled my expectation to the letter. I can’t fault the machine.

C.M.

Window shades. USA.
Our Aeronaut cutter has tripled our business. It has made our company a lot more successful and life is easier.

C.T.

Canvas
Our Aeronaut cutter is a great bit of kit. I would recommend it to anyone.

P.W.

Sailmaking
Our Aeronaut cutter is the best thing we have ever bought.

S.M.

Truck Curtains Victoria.
Our Aeronaut cutter oﬀers great advantages on smaller orders as well as the large ones due to fast and precise cutting of materials we use to create the final products.

P.M.

Shade structures
It's reduced a day's cutting for four people down to 1.5 hours for just one.

M.K.

Canvas
Our Aeronaut cutter paid for itself three times over inside the first two years.

JG

Truck Curtains
Our Aeronaut has done a phenomenal job... otherwise we would not be buying another.

JK

Window furnishings.
Our cutter has cut hundreds of thousands of pieces and we've never had a breakdown.

AK

Window furnishings.
Our cutter is an Aeronaut out of Australia and it has been my best purchase ever.

T.R.

Blind Maker USA.
The Aeronaut cutter does more work than two and a half people, and it doesn't make mistakes. Based on that and the price, I can pay for it inside two years.

M.B

Blindmaker
Our decision to invest in your product was like flying to moon for us but it has made a massive diﬀerence to our company.

B.D.

Composites NZ
The Aeronaut cutter has completely transformed our manufacturing process. The cut pieces just fall together under the welder.

S.T.

Tension membranes NZ.
The Aeronaut cutter is the best, most simple solution to the problem of wide format cutters that I have seen.

P.A

A CNC machine manufacturer
The best thing about our cutter... is that it has reduced stress in the factory. If we get a big order we know the machine will handle it, fast, and no mistakes.

P.W.

PVC fabrication
The eﬀort was well worth it as the new machine has revolutionised the way we do things here, and has been for the past few years.

D.P.

Paragliders
The Elektron Quattro is ideally suited to high volumes as it's very accurate in minimising fabric waste.

P.M.

Shade structures
The good thing about our Aeronaut machine is that it is so easy to operate that we have four workers who can use it.

N.S.

Carbon and Glass Fibre pre-preg
The quality of the machinery speaks for itself… it is more accurate than any other cutting table.

S.C.

Window Shades"
The reason we bought an Aeronaut cutter is that it looked simple and reliable, and I knew we could do any maintenance on it ourselves.

D.M.

Corrugated Packaging.
There is no doubt in my mind that the Aeronaut cutter is the best way to go when it comes to supplying pool blankets.

S.B.

Swimming pool covers
We are excited about the prospects and the future. Aeronaut's table is true work-horse and is out performing any other table on the market.

A.M.

Packaging.
We are happy with the product and your team is responsive and your are providing a good support. For these reasons I would like to ask you if you would be interested in working with us on a much larger scale project.

T.R.

Composites
We are only as successful as our suppliers and supporters allow us to be, and we view Aeronaut as an integral part of our success.

M.W.

Window Furnishings
We are very happy with our new cutter, you made a very good job. Thanks. When you have clients, who are interest for the Aeronaut cutter, its no problem so send the guys to us. We can show them, no problem

S.S.

Sailmaker
We can unpick a product, lay it flat on the table and trace it with SiliconEye so what might have taken days to design, draw and make up, might be finished in just hours.

P.M.

Shade structures
We cut 2,000 to 3,500 metres each week with 30% less waste than our competitors.

J.L.

Carpet Cutting
We have achieved an 80% reduction in the labour to mark and cut. It takes 2 minutes to mark and cut everything. Previously, that would have taken over 10 minutes.

W.K.

Hurricane screens
We have just cut 36 bags with our new laser at nearly 2 bags per minute. That's a saving of over three days a year on this product alone compared with the old method.

A.R.

PVC
We love our Aeronaut cutter! It's the best machine we've got.

G.H.

Window Furnishings
We love this machine... it just goes and goes.

AK

Window furnishings.
We've had our Aeronaut cutter two years now and it's going like a train. If anyone wants to know, they can call me.

B.S

Sailmaking.
Why wouldn't I promote Aeronaut at every opportunity? Our cutter has been the best technical investment we ever made!

B.D.

Inflatables NZ
With an Aeronaut cutter, production is up 30% on our most optimistic estimates. and that is after using two types of competitive machine.

R.B.

Corrugated Packaging
With the Aeronaut cutter performing three times faster than hand cutting, the company had to put on two extra full-time machinists, as well as one casual, to keep up.

C.K.

Canvas & PVC
Aussie Bills has been using the Aeronaut for about 9 years. We have found the drive system to be very reliable with low maintenance required.

A. J.

Blinds, awnings
With the Aeronaut cutter performing three times faster than hand cutting, the company had to put on two extra full-time machinists, as well as one casual, to keep up

K.C.

Truck curtains

Contact Aeronaut

Get the facts from the factory direct. If you want advice on automated cutting, an offer on a complete cutting system or to arrange a demonstration, just ask!

Give me the facts!

Automated Cutters for Sailmaking