Going Green, Lean and Mean, Just do It, What’s in your wallet? These are all phrases and quips designed to catch our attention to seel us something. It may not necessarily be a product, it may well be a concept, an idea even. Mainly it is to attract our attention and focus on a particular subject.

So what does “Being Safe” mean? It means that in all aspects of your life, whether at work you survive the day without injury or worse. There are laws to govern safety, seat belts, speed cameras, non slip curb side patches, flotation devices and so on. There are laws governing and enforcing safe work environments. Safety guards on equipment, warning buzzers when a machine is about to start, pressure pads and light curtains around equipment.

Being Safe is about commitment, the companies commitment to providing a safe environment, safety training, safety documentation and trained personnel should something go wrong. Above all of this it is the responsibility of the individual to follow the safety rules.

My Press Needs is committed to safety, we constantly strive to provide equipment that is engineered with safety in mind. The latest addition to our safety arsenal is the laser scanner. The scanner detects when an operator is working within the working area of the press and will not allow the machine to cycle. This is especially useful on the larger presses when the operator can be out of reach of the stop buttons.

The laser scanner provides one more level of commitment to providing a “Being Safe” environment for the production department. While manufacturing struggles with shorter and shorter production lead times it is of paramount importance that the machinery is safe to operate. A machine that breaks down can easily be fixed but an injured operator is not as easily fixed.

When all said and done Being Safe is a collaboration, it is a partnership between the equipment manufacturer, the company and the machine operator. A prime example of this is the car industry, cars come with air bags, seat belts, warning systems for sleepy drivers and so on, and yet accidents happen every day because the driver was talking on their cell phone.

Please take a moment to learn more about our new laser scanning system at www.mypressneeds.com

Plastic corrugated has become very popular in many ways, it is resistant to moisture, it is tough and rigid. Die cutting this material has its own set of challenges but when you add cutting and sealing into the challenge at the same time, manufacturing this product becomes a little more difficult.

The first part of the process is to identify the material, thickness and physical make up play a large part in die cutting and sealing. The thickness of the plastic corrugated dictates the type of cutting rule to be used as well as the sealing rule. In most cases die makers and die cutters like to use brass sealing rule, this is because brass has a high conductivity of heat as illustrated on the Fournier charts. Copper, aluminum and even steel rule will work in some cases, along with a variety of alloys.

One mistake that most die cutters and die makers make, is to use a sealing rule that is way too thick. If the sealing rule is too thick, the amount of pressure required at the point of die cutting impact is greatly increased. If a timed dwell is being used, the dwell time must be longer to allow for the transference of heat from the sealer to the material. A thinner more precise sealing rule is far more successful, it creates a simple and effective, clean bead and requires less impact pressure or dwell to achieve the seal.

Here is a diagram showing the kinds of seal rule widths and steel rule combination to achieve an adequate seal. The offset numbers are determined by the thickness of the plastic corrugated.

As you can see from the diagram, a piece of brass rule is placed up against the cut rule. Please note the rule is side bevel rule with the bevel angle toward the brass sealing rule. This helps to create a neat sealing bead and allows for the flutes to crush easily and a small amount of expansion. This design helps the material from bubbling or warping at the point of impact.

This gives an example of one of the preferred methods used in cutting and sealing plastic corrugated materials. This is just a guideline, the rule offsets and heights are determined by the thickness and crush thickness of the plastic corrugated.

Steel rule dies can be expensive, so I am often astounded by the lack of care that is taken to store them. Warped dies can cause major problems during the make-ready process. The warping or cupping can give false readings when the first impression is taken. What may look like a high spot in the die may be created by the rule being held high by the warped die board. This causes the press operator to build up the low areas, only to find that when the press increases impression the rule starts to sit and the operator chases his/her tail adding or subtracting make-ready.

Impepoer storage is the main cause of warped, twisted or cupped dies. If a dieboard is laid flat on a surface the top of the board dires out faster than the bottom surface. That is why lumber yards and mills palce spacers between their boards to create an even drying process.

Now some companies believe that if they stand a die board up against a wall, generally at an angle, that will allow the boards to dry evenly. That may be the case until multiple boards are stacked up against each other. The weight of the boards stacked against the lower boards causes increased warpage to those boards.

Other companies prefer to lay the dies flat on top of each other, generally on a pallet. This does not help warpage either, but it does bring another form of damage into the mix. Boards stacked on top of each otherm rub against each other, this damages the cutting rule, it puts nicks in the rule and creates high and low spots. Creating high and low spots causes extra make-ready time again.

If a company has hundreds of boards stored this way, there are literally thousands of dollars at stake. Not just in damaged boards but in extra production time wasted.

So lets do the match. A

A company buys 5 dies a week at a basic cost of $250 each, one of these boards gets damaged or warped so it has to be replaced prematurely. $250 x 52 weeks = $13,000 a year.

Those same dies are taken to the die cutting press in bad condition.

An average make-ready could be 15 minutes. Using $250 per hour machine time we can calculate the loss of production cost in a year.

A 15 minute make-ready now takes 1 hour because of the damaged or warped board. So the original make-ready cost was $62,50, it is now $250 a difference of $187.50. Mulitply that by only 2 make-readies per shift the loss per shift would be $375 per shift. Now take that over 2 shifts per day = $750 per day, then 5 days in a week =$3,750 per week lost. 52 weeks in a year the total loss in a year could be $195,000. Just because the storage of the dies is sloppy and inadequate.

Now, there are some excellent storage options available from a number of die cutting suppliers. The best are the hanging storage racks, see the pictures and examples below:

These days manufacturers do not have the old luxury of long lead times to produce customer products. Long gone are the warehoused pallets of die cut cartons, folders, labels etc. Today’s world is On Demand, so the reliability of the equipment to products on an everyday basis, without fail is crucial to a companies success.

So lets take a look at the consequences of not maintaining the die cutting press.

A press has no schedule or agenda for breaking down, mostly presses fail at the most unwanted moments, the height of production.

This causes all kinds of problems and ultimately costs. Once the press has failed, a service technician has to be called in to resolve the problem. This is often very costly, due to the fact that, in some cases the service technician has to be flown in at a moments notice. Parts for the repair often have to be shipped overnight, and worst of all, while the press is down no money os being made to pay for the emergency repairs. Lastly, production schedules are not met and customers have to be notified that their shipment will be delayed. Too many delays to a customer can eventually result in the problem going away because the manufacturer no longer has that customer.

Scheduled preventative maintenance is the key to this problem. The down time can be scheduled, preferably during a slower period in the year. Parts can be shipped at a more reasonable rate and costs are kept to a minimum.

At the time of the PM a service technician can also look for warning signs that a press is not being operated properly. For example, if the cutting plate is showing premature wear, that may be caused by a poorly trained operator. The service technician can point the company in the right direction to get some training for the operators. After the operator is fully trained and the machine is in good condition, manufacturing can be completed with no interruptions providing a healthier bottom line for the company.

Recently I have been working on some different projects, and a couple of these projects have included the abbreviation P.O.D. So what does P.O.D. mean?

Well, in one of the projects P.O.D. stands for Print On Demand, in another it stands for Publish On Demand and a third Packaging On Demand. All three of these definitions are a sign of the times. One of the driving forces behind these titles is the instant society that we live in with its addictive thirst for instant gratification. A seond driving force is the economy, companies do not want to have large inventories of products sitting on their shelves.

So in the  case of, Print on Demand, some companies have set themselves up with technology that provides a service whereby, you place and order and the order is printed within a couple of days or in some cases while you wait.

Publish On Demand, some publishing houses take this approach with short run books or first time unknown authors. The quality is not as good as a well bound hard cover, but it is less risk and less investment.

The most interesting development I am experiencing, is Packaging On Demand. Let me give you a scenario.

You have a product that may fit in a standard, off the shelf carton, the only difference is the graphics from one carton to the next. The printing technology available these days allows the manufacturer to sit in front of a graphics screen, create a graphic design within a carton template footprint. The design is printed on a printer like an Indigo, Xerox or systems that are similar. Now you should note . these printers can print on high quality carton board of varying thicknesses.

So, you now have 100 sheets printed, with 2, 3, 4,6 cartons on the layout. The next step is a to die cut and crease the cartons ready for the product. This is where a standard die comes in to play. The carton shape remember does not change, only the graphics. A machine such as the Autoclam is ideal for this process, it is quick set up, automatic and very safe.

If the demand allows, any number of sheets can be run though the machine. A number of stock styles of cartons can be made, they are matched with a stock make-ready and a set of phenolic counters for quick crease set up.

This process is very fast and easy to set up, I believe this will corner a large part of the folding carton market in the future.

A common problem I am often asked is “Why is my die cutting so uneven?”. A very important question for a company selling high precision die cutters. Reasons like, warped cutting plate, damaged cutting plate, old machine out of alignment, poor dies etc. In this blog we will concentrate on one of the most common reasons:-

Poorly cut die board slots for the steel rule.

In the original days of steel rule die making this was not an issue as most dies were block dies. The wooden blocks floated and so did the rule. The steel rule sat firmly against the back plate of the press. Then along came the jigsaw and jigging dies became a skilled craft. Jig saw operators would trim their jigsaw blades with a honing stone in order to make a tight 2 point or a loose two point depending on the layout of the die and the concentration of rule.

This method was followed by the laser and the router. The skill level of the operator shifted from following a drawn line and jigging along that line with precision and accuracy to an operator pushing a mouse.

Testing the slot for looseness or tightness has not changed, a test cut is usually done before cutting the whole job and the test rule is often a piece of crease rule matching the thickness of the rule to be used in the die.

This all sounds very technical and exact, but in truth there are a lot of faults with this process. For example, the crease rule test piece may have been taken from a box from one supplier and then the die ruled with rule from a different supplier. Now, lets say the crease rule test strip measures .027″ and the rule in the die measures ,029″.

These rules are within the required tolerance of +/- .001″, but the .002″ difference between the two can have disastrous results. Once the die board reaches the die board, the slot is tight, this causes the rule to take on the influence of the die board. The rule will not seat properly and any warp, twist or cupping will entice the rule to follow suit.

Once the die is placed in the de cutter the rule must seat against the back cutting plate. If the rule is influenced by the die board because the slot is too tight the result is damaged rule or lengthy make-readies.

An example of this problem came to me today, a customer was having problems kiss cutting a slit in a backing liner. The wave rule would cut at each end but not in the middle. The die is 26 inches long and 6 inches wide. In this case the rule must almost float in the die not be influenced by the wood.

So, cutting a rule slot in a die board may have changed with technology but the skill of knowing how to cut that slot has not changed.

Next time we will talk about some of the other reasons for uneven cutting.

Having been involved in the packaging industry, in one form or another, my entire life, I have seen many changes. Many of the changes have been ideas that have been recycled.

The latest craze is to use recyclable shopping bags instead of plastic shopping bags. Even though these plastic bags can be recycled, they frequently are not. So, the local authorities decided it would be more eco friendly if the bags were discontinued unless they are purchased. The alternative is to purchase re-usable canvas shopping bags from the store selling the groceries. A very smart marketing idea and a great source of revenue. Should the shopper forget their re-usable bags, they can purchase new re-usable bags or purchase the now tolled recyclable bags.

When I was younger, there were no plastic shopping bags, you either took your own canvas bag or wicker basket or you were given a paper sack which was biodegradable. So what happened between then and now. What happened was laziness, it is much more convenient to go to the store and be handed a plastic bag full of goodies than remember the canvas bags from home.

The easiest solution is to do away with the plastic bags completely, then if you show up without a canvas bag, the shopper either carries each item separately or uses biodegradable paper sacks with a charge.

So what has this got to do with packaging? Well, packaging is an enclosure wrapper of some shape or form that contains the product for carrying or dispensing purposes. For example, an outer toothpaste tube is a package, an aerosol can is a package, a plastic bag carrying groceries is a package.

The newest form of recyclable packaging, in my opinion, is re-usable packaging. Note there is a huge difference between re-usable packaging and recyclable packaging.

My company and I have been working with a company that produces re-usable packaging. The product is a shipping container, commonly known as a cardboard box, brown box or shipping box. However, these boxes are not made of corrugated cardboard but corrugated plastic. They have many attractive qualities, they are freezable, they resist moisture and therefore less puncture resistant.

This type of packaging is a little more difficult to produce, especially in the die cutting process, heat is required along with special rule in the dies.

Once the manufacturing was mastered, this company contributes hugely to the ecology drive the country is enveloped in. These boxes are not only re-usable, but at the end of their long life, they are recyclable. What better packaging is there?

So, the next time you open a box of cereals, spray air freshener or any other packaged product, give it some thought, what could be done to make that package re-usable, not just recyclable.

A common question in the die cutting industry comes from the Folding Carton manufacturers.

Question: “How deep into the carton board should my glue assists go?”.

The answer is: – Deep enough to cut through the clay coated top surface of the board, but nit deep enough to go all the way through.

Some companies will try to ascertain the thickness of the coating on the surface of the carton board, this is usually unnecessary, 50% penetration is a good rule of thumb. Most clay coating or UV coating are very very thin, as thin as 50-100 microns or .003″-.005″.

The function of the glue assists are to prenetrate the surface coating allowing the water based glues to soak through to the cellulose fibers of the substrate creating a solid bond.

There are a number of options available to do the cutting or abrading. Some in-line gluing machines come with “scuffing” wheels that will rough up the surface of the board to give the glue some grip. Then there are the steel rule die options, perforating rule seems to be the most common, although most of the rule manufacturers offer special glue assist rule.

The height of the glue assist rule is a simple calculation, for example, if the board being die cut is .020″ or 500 microns, the cut rule is ,937″ (23.8mm) then the height of the glue assist rule should be .010″ (250 microns) less than the rule height. In this case the glue assist rule would be .927″(23.55mm).

Glue assist rule can also be added to the top flaps of a carton for assisting adhesion in the pack filling process. However, in most cases, hot melt glue is used for this operation and glue assists are generally not necessary. Some companies do still add glue assists for extra adhesion.

So, the 50% rule for calculating gluse assist depth it the general rule.

This is a question I get asked a lot. The answer is fairly simple, it all comes down to knowledge.

If a press operator is not trained properly then the press will not run at optimum speed. Most press operators are not exposed to new methods, industry tricks, material differences and die making materials or construction.

For reference on this subject I refer back to my blog on The Science of Die Cutting. Once a press operator understands the Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry of die cutting they are armed with powerful information that influences set up and press operation.

For example:

If a pressman does not know that the rubber on the die affects his die cutting efficiency greatly, then he will struggle to get a good cut and a quality product. The same goes for make-ready, I see a lot of so called “short cuts”, they may offer fast set up, but they have their consequences. These short cut methods often result in poor quality parts, break downs during the run, and in some cases a complete scrapping of the job.

The policy of doing it right and consistently produce high quality parts, faster turnaround and cost savings in die life plus machine wear and tear.

Let me give you a scenario that may look like it is saving money but costs the company a fortune in the long run.

1. The purchasing agent buys material with minimal trim on the sides and back. This causes inefficient sheet handling in the press and, if automatic stripping is being used, the stripping of the scrap becomes more difficult. RESULT: Slow press speeds.
2. The die purchaser buys generic dies not engineered specifically for the material being die cut. (this applies to any kind of die cutting machine being used) The rule wears out quickly, the rule bevel angle is incorrect so the stress on the sheet is too high, so the nicks break. RESULT: Slow press speeds.
3. Inexpensive stripping board materials, poor nick breakage at the point of separation, scrap material hang ups. RESULT: Slow press speeds.
4. Dies rubbered incorrectly with the wrong rubber or too much or too little rubber. Poor sheet control. RESULT: Poor quality parts and Slow press speeds.
5. Poorly trained operators. Poor make-ready techniques. RESULT: Poor quality and Slow press speeds.

These are a few example of the consequences of poor purchasing and lack of training, couple that with complacent management styles and we have a recipe for disaster.

As a new Carton Construction design employee at a folding carton company in England, I was horrified to learn that I was to spend my first year in coveralls down in the finishing department. During that year, I ran Wupa and Bobst die cutters, Jagenberg gluers and Thrissel window patchers. Plus I occasionally ran one of the Heidelberg foil stampers.

My manager in the finishing department had one rule, “The machines have a speed dial, I expect it to be at max all the time”. I challenged him on this, naively pointing out that some material was flimsy, some rigid etc. He told me that all I had to do was figure out what the influences were on the material to cause the machine to run slower. Once I had that figured out, I could compensate, by adding or removing rubber. Specifying different rule, creating fully defined creases for the gluer, designing more efficient strippers. That is where the math, physics and chemistry all come together.

After I completed this period, I joined my future colleagues in the Carton Design department. I took the opportunity to ask my boss why I had spent all that time on the shop floor instead of being in the design department doing the job I had been hired for? He simply replied, “how can you design a carton and know it will run at optimum speed through production?”

So what this all boils down to is knowledge and training. Once you have those well and truly taken care of, the next question should be, “why won’t my machine go faster than the maximum setting?” The answer at that point is: Time to buy a new machine!

You have purchased a new or used clamshell die cutter, bought a new die and you are ready to die cut. The next step is to make-ready the machine for die cutting.

This step can be the most costly part of the process if it is not done correctly. Part of this step is setting up sheet registration. If the part is not printed, the only registration required is to center the material on the die with even waste on each side. This can be done by simply taping pieces of material to the cutting bed of the press, positioned to hold the front edge and the side edge of the sheet.

In most cases this registration is done by eye and the materials used for the side guides can be layers of thick card, rubber, plastic or bent thin metals.

The problem with that method, is that, it is not very accurate. So if you are setting up the press to cut a printed sheet and you want the registration of print to cut to be precise then a more accurate method must be used.

Most companies start by placing a large sheet of scrap material on the cutting bed of the press, a light impression is then taken by closing the press. The material can be film that is see through, it is taped along the top edge to allow it to be folded back on itself while a printed sheet is placed on the cutting bed. The film is rolled back over and the impression in the clear sheet is lined up with the print. This effectively registers the die cut image to the print.

The film is rolled back, and being careful not to move the printed sheet it is taped into place on the cutting bed. Side guides are again placed along the bottom edge of the sheet and along one side, usually the left.

It is recommended that more accurate side guides/registration guides be used in this case. These guides can be adjusted precisely to fit the print to the die cut.

Here are some examples of sheet registration guides available from die cutting suppliers, Bar-Plate, and Ameriken.

Bar-plates Adusto Guides.

Ameriken side guides

These guides can be used for thicker materials such as corrugated, plastics, foams etc.