More about Die Cutting

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In its most basic form, die cutting can be defined as a process whereby shapes are cut from sheets of plastic (a similar process to cookie cutting) by using a shaped knife and pressing the edge into one (or a number) of layers of sheeting. The dies that are used in this process are most often referred to as steel rule dies. After the cutting is complete, pressure is applied by the use of hydraulic or mechanical presses. Die cutting sometimes goes by the names dinking or blanking.

There are a few types of die cutting but the most well known are rotary die cutting (also known as gasket die cutting) and flatbed die cutting. Let's take a closer look at both types.

Rotary die cutting involves the unwinding of material that is then put through a hydraulic press. Afterwards a precision engraved steel cylinder die is used to first roll over and then cut a variety of shapes and sizes out of the material. This material is very manageable at this point in time. It can be carried by a release liner and rolled onto a new core or if preferred, the sheets can be made into pads. The rotary dies can do one of two things. They can cut completely through the material and its corresponding release liner (called metal to metal die-cut) or it can cut through the material and down to (but not right through) the release liner (known as a kiss-cut or a butt-cut).

Rotary die cutting has its advantages. The tooling allows for the creation of the same part over and over again, to tolerances as tight as .02" and parts are regularly within tolerance. Another big plus is in the freedom of expression it allows. Rotary die cutting makes it possible to create the shapes and sizes you want as opposed to using someone else's old standby parts.

Flatbed die cutting is the other most popular of this important process. In this case, material shapes are stamped out utilizing steel rule dies that are adjusted accordingly to varying degrees of hydraulic presses. One of the biggest advantages of flatbed die cutting is tooling costs are kept to a minimum. The reason for this is simple- when quantity is not at its highest, then the sizes of the die-cuts are bigger and/or a number of shapes are needed therefore the less costly flatbed dies provide definite value over rotary tooling. Another plus is that on materials over 1/8" in thickness, the vertical cut allows a much tighter tolerance. The tooling causes very little rounding (or curvature) of the material used. Different combinations of materials are better suited to the process of flatbed die cutting over rotary cutting. It all depends on what specific materials are needed for the project at hand.