Custom machinery for cutting/drilling card stock

[Abie]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone might be able to recommend a company which could custom build a machine for cutting/drilling/sorting either 12x18 or 13x19 card stock into a singular size? Or, if anyone knows of a ready to use machine which could do the job.

Presently, we are using a large rotary die cutter yet it's being used for dozens of other items. Also, purchasing a second rotary die cutter would be expensive given the single item we need to cut.

Finishing equipment such as a Duplo or Graphic Wizard business card cutter would be perfect, yet they are not available in the card size we need, nor do they drill holes.

Thank you

 

[DigitalPEye]

That is a lot to ask for. I think you are better off spending the 60m on a rollem rotary cutter/slitter but sorting would be more a pre press thing if its variable printing. If its sorting by size with no variable you would be limited still with I think 4 sort bins. You can run several rotary cutters together to get more cut options in one pass.


I am looking into a rotary cutter that would run in line with a duplex uv coater. The purpose is taking a 12x18 or 13x19 sheet printed 4 up with variable postcards, trimming to bleed and stack sorting. Looking at reducing 40 hours of cutting and sorting on a guillotine to hopefully 10 hours of sorting off of the rotary stack sort into mail trays. We will have to change our output from planet press for the specific sort off of the rotary cutters.

I think in your case you will need three pieces of equipment. Duplo rotary die cutters are nice because you get your die made for your needs/art and just re-order them when they are consumed. You could probably slit and cut holes in one pass there. But sorting is another step and depending on what the sort is could be more difficult to accomplish.

duplo also can be used in a fiery workflow. Fiery can print barcodes on the job which duplo can read and automatically setup the slitters for the job when the barcode is scanned. You could use variable barcodes to tell the duplo or duplos which jobs it is outputting and possibly use this to handle the sort downstream..

Adding the two rotary cutters and conveyors to the duplex uv coater alone is going to be nearly $80000. Rough estimate..there are many ways to skin a roller.

Custom fabrication might cost a whole lot more. Using 2d barcodes and scanners in the workflow with slitters, die cutters, accumulators and conveyor systems to output into bin sort or stack sort is a framework idea but paying someone to take the concept and create a functional system could be extremely costly.

 

[Abie]

Thank you for the detailed and helpful reponse.

I agree wth you on the sorting part. I actually should not have included that in my wish list as that is probably the most complicated aspect of these machines. The project does not entail any variable printing so that makes things easier and faster to "gather" the cut cards and package.

As for purchasing a duplo rotary die cutter, I am still holding out for something simpler and with a much smaller footprint given that the project is for cutting/drilling just one single card size and shape, and will never be required to do anything else.

 

[Magnus59]

Have you considered buying an old 12x18 platen and setting it up exclusively for this job, it would be far cheaper than getting a custom machine designed and manufactured.

 

[Abie]

That's interesting and I would definitely be open to the idea, yet I am unfamiliar with what your suggesting. Would you be able to please provide an example, or a name and model of a machine?

 

[Magnus59]

This is the type of machine I am suggesting, max speed is 5000 impressions per hour but you would probably get 2000-3000 sheets per hour diecutting a full size sheet
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Heidelberg...419283?hash=item28896e9bd3:g:StEAAOSwpoxdL5Co

 

[Abie]

Wow! That's really something different. I watched a couple of videos and did some reading. Realy interesting. And it seems used ones are available for relatively low amounts.

Yet, we are a digital printing company and as such do not have experience nor knowledge for this type of equipment.

Or am I wrong and that a machine like this could be operated by anyone?

 

[Magnus59]

Wow! That's really something different. I watched a couple of videos and did some reading. Realy interesting. And it seems used ones are available for relatively low amounts.

Yet, we are a digital printing company and as such do not have experience nor knowledge for this type of equipment.

Or am I wrong and that a machine like this could be operated by anyone?

You would need a little training in the correct and safe operation of letterpress machinery, I'm sure there are plenty of retired machinists who would be happy to help you out with it.
You would need to get a die made and the knives & punches replaced periodically.

 

[Abie]

Thank you. I will definitely make some inquiries.

 

[old guy]

https://www.thermotype.com/Wordpress/PDF_Files/RAS-mc-Right-angle-slitter-Brochure.pdf check out this machine. we have used their business card slitters for 30 years they are built tough and easy to run.

 

[Abie]

https://www.thermotype.com/Wordpress/PDF_Files/RAS-mc-Right-angle-slitter-Brochure.pdf check out this machine. we have used their business card slitters for 30 years they are built tough and easy to run.

Hi, just took a look at a video and it looks great. Do you think it can cut/drill our tags of 1.5" x 3"? If yes, what about when they exit onto the conveyor belt as the tags are layed out 7 across and 5 down? Also, what price range is this in?

 

[gregbatch]

I think you would be very happy with a Thermotype RDC rotary die cutter. Lots of shops use this for tags and other small items. Plus, with roughly a 2 minute changeover you may just want to replace your other die cutter. Unless you are running this all day long on the one item, it seems silly to have two cutters.

 

[Abie]

Thank you.

 

[old guy]

call therm o type they can customize alot of their machinery to suit your needs

 

[Abie]

I received a quote from them today for the ZIP CSCL MARK IV PRO which after discussing the project with them seemed like a perfect fit for our needs. Yet at just a bit shy of $100K CAN it's way beyond the budget for this project.