DDIN Library

DIELESS DIGITAL DIECUTTING

Details: Written by Robert Larson

What is Dieless Digital Diecutting?

To start with, it's an oxymoron. Dieless Digital Diecutting never involves a cutting die. So, how does it diecut? Speaking in abstract, Dieless Digital Diecutting is cutting materials with an appropriate cutting tool, which is real-time controlled by a computer or by some computer-generated data stored in some memory. No cutting die and no press is involved in the process.

No big deal? Yes and no.

Yes, because that's somehow "de ja vu" from vinyl cutting systems. But also no, because Dieless Digital Diecutting is indeed very different. First of all, it is not about cutting vinyl material any more. Digital Diecutting is about cutting any other material that presently that has been commonly diecut in the past. Secondly, but also most importantly, Dieless Digital Diecutting is about cutting serious volume in industrial production.

So, is Dieless Digital Diecutting competing with traditional diecutting or cutting die manufacturers?

No, rather it is complementing to the diecutting process. Let, me explain: When a converter needs to produce several samples of a new part for a product, it is logical to use a samplemaker to produce a limited number of prototype parts. This concept is already well established in the industry. For a number of year's x-y tables equipped with various blades have been used to cut out parts.

Now we enter a new stage of productivity with an x-y table where we have the ability to perform small or medium lot cutting of parts. This is an opportunity for the diemaker or converter to broaden his (or her) services to customers. Where a cutting die may have been produced to cut a small to medium run of a part, the cost of the tooling may have been a factor in not using diecutting to produce the part.

Now the diemaker or converter can offer an alternative solution to their customer. By producing small lots by Dieless Digital Diecutting techniques, the company can satisfy all of their requirements. For example, since the diemaker will have the file of the part to cut, the diemaker could produce a die when the customer decides to produce longer runs. Therefore, on the part of the diemaker, Dieless Digital Diecutting is simply an extension of their service to their customers. It is one more way for a diemaker to insure that customers depend on the diemaker for total services.

Today, converting companies are looking to their diemaker suppliers for total solutions to cutting and trimming requirements. For a diemaker to offer a Dieless Digital Diecutting service along with his (or her) other service and products insures that a customer will totally rely on the diemaker for all cutting and trimming requirements.

Dieless Digital Diecutting has many favorable advantages, but it has one indisputable disadvantage.

It cannot produce as fast as a diecutting press machine with a die, not to mention diecutting on a rotary diecutting press. So, forget about it? Beware! With Dieless Digital Diecutting no initial investment for cutting die tooling

Are we talking about volumes in the hundreds? Yes, in the hundreds range Dieless Digital Diecutting is more economic for sure. But, today, that threshold from whereon traditional diecutting is cheaper than Dieless Digital Diecutting can, in many cases, be as high as 10,000 pieces. There are even certain production situations where Dieless Digital Diecutting could practically always be cheaper or better than traditional diecutting.

How so?

Your production costs consist of many variables, with production yield rate and personnel costs coming into the equation too. Now there lies additional potential for saving with Dieless Digital Diecutting.

Digital Diecutting is a very precise technology, it can bring your yield rate up considerably. Because Dieless Digital Diecutting can be automated, your savings in personnel costs can be significant.

For example, there is this toy company with a very big range of standard printed magnetic film products with considerable volume in seasonal and promotional products. Their ready printed magnetic film material prices in the range of US$ 20.00 per sq. yard. By almost doubling their yield (through less scrap and better usage of material) through Dieless Digital Diecutting in their case has paid for itself. Plus, they found that they could reduce personnel cost through a double function of the machine operator now also doing Quality Control and packaging.

In another case, a label sticker manufacturer decided to go to digital printing for greater flexibility, faster turnaround and delivery time. He found that he could not wait for a die to be made, so he now cuts his labels digitally and immediately, synchronously with his digital printing process. There is no way a traditional diecutting can do a better or cheaper job in connection with digital printing systems.

Got the idea?

So, let's look at some details of Dieless Digital Diecutting. Generally, Dieless Digital Diecutting machines are flat-table X-Y machines, connected to a computer. (PC, MAC or network . . . it makes no difference). They hold the cutting material on their tabletop by means of vacuum and/or mechanical clamps. Some have mechanisms like conveyor belts, moving arms or similar, to load the uncut material onto the worktable and to unload the ready cut material from the table. All can use at least one cutting tool at a time, some have tool heads with several tools alongside each other, for instance doing kiss cutting and diecutting in succession without having to change tools.

Usually, the individual cutting tool is a Tungsten carbide blade or wheel, which in most cases is tangentially controlled, so as to point always exactly into the direction of the cutting movement. Depending on the material these tools are held steady or are in a fast oscillating motion, even at ultrasonic vibration at times.

By utilizing a laser beam or a water jet cutting head as the cutting tool these machines have to have some specific modifications, like a permeable tabletop and maybe a filter system. Also, there are already some combinations of laser cutting and steel tool operation, giving you the best of both worlds.

There is one single new feature which really has pushed Dieless Digital Diecutting forward and that is digital camera control. Systems today can be equipped with cameras that measure the exact positioning of the material on the worktable to guide the machine movements accordingly. In additions, the digital cameras can even measure the slight inaccuracies any printing process may have brought in and compensate for that too. That has really opened the door for these machines into fully automatic operation and total yield.

Dieless Digital Diecutting systems today are really X-Y production robots with eyes and feel. Plus, you have all the paraphernalia of the digital world, like total flexibility and multiplicity. You can change cutting contours in seconds with the click of a mouse. You can of course, multiply your production to several machines, sites or factories using data copying, e-mailing and Internet distribution. Prepare your job at some place and the send the data to all your subsidiaries and let them all produce it.

A word or two about prices -

Like with almost everything else, you can buy expensive or inexpensive, good or not so good. To give you some guidance on the costs of Dieless Digital Diecutting systems, these systems start at about US$ 30,000.00. Add approximately US$ 4,000.00 in average for every individual carbide cutting tool. Add approximately US$ 50,000.00 for the first 100 Watt power laser tool (including machine alterations, cooling system, special laser safety features and filter unit for the burning gas). Add approximately US$ 15,000.00 for every additional 100 Watt of laser power.

Is that expensive? - Not really.

In most cases you do not require laser or waterjet at all, so your system cost will be well below US$ 50,000.00 altogether. Funny enough, laser and waterjet, the most expensive add-ons mainly come in connection with cutting the softest and lightest materials, like crochet for lingerie goods or soft foam.

What can you expect?

Cutting at speeds of up to 30" per second and with an accuracy of up to 0.0008".

Though, average cutting speeds may vary in practice a good deal, with the cutting speed per second lowest with very small and delicate parts, and fastest with large and smoothly formed objects.

To give you some feel for that: All parts for a shirt can be cut in 1:10 minutes, all parts for a leather car seat in 3:15 min and the crochet parts for a medium size bra in 24 seconds, i.e. for 150 bras per hour.

This may still seem slow to you, but do not forget that these are extremely difficult products to cut anyway and most cutting here today is still done by some manually supported process. To continue with the example of the 150 bras per hour, all these bras could vary in size and form, no problem. Yes, traditional diecutting is the logical solution in large volume production, but, here again Dieless Digital Diecutting is the winner for small to medium production runs.

To really get at the full potential of Dieless Digital Diecutting, you should free yourself for a moment from the prevailing view of industry as a mass production environment, where small volumes seldom happen because that is going to change in future.

It is very foreseeable, that with the enormous flexibility of computer-controlled manufacturing - which Dieless Digital Diecutting is a vital part of, will lead to a great deal of "custom made" products. Products that are practically "custom" manufactured for individuals or for specific requirements.

The most obvious example is "made-to-measure clothing" which is beginning to change the clothing industry as a whole. But there are already many other examples already in many areas of industrial production. You would be amazed how many parts and products are already being manufactured with a digital production process involved somewhere in the manufacture. And that number is growing rapidly, with more people learning every day about the availability of digital technology for their specific requirements.

To summarize, I would like to indicate in what areas of production Dieless Digital Diecutting should be considered today:

Of course, wherever there is still any manual cutting.
Of course, wherever high production volume is yet uncertain or where it will predictably remain
In connection with all digital printing.
Where optimum absolute geometry precision is required.
Where optimum relative geometry precision is required (in order to synchronize printed
In all samplemaking processes.
Wherever material costs and yield rate are critical.
Where more flexible production and faster delivery time is intended.

§ In all "made to measure" manufacturing processes.