Written By Mark Batson Baril
Starting Patch-Up at the Right Point During Make-Ready is important, let's explore the basics....
On a cutting press, with a new job, at the beginning of a make ready - What % of cutting does a cutting pressman start to patch-up the make-ready sheet to get the most mileage from the die?
This is a tricky question in that having a die last forever and making a profit on a job are often two very different things. Balancing die costs, press time, run length, and the likelihood of repeating the order in the future can become very complex. In most shops an operator is given a set amount of time that he or she should take in order to make the job ready to run. The shorter this given amount of time tends to get the higher the percentage you talk about in your question tends to be. If your press and make-ready system are set-up well, you will not necessarily have to sacrifice die life for a quick make-ready.
"Spot up" (patch-up) is the process where a pressman uses tapes or other thickness building devices (paper, metals, etc….) to add thickness to areas of the press and the die that tend to be lower than the rest. On a brand new smaller platen type press or a press with a well made die-set used as the cutting surface - the surface that the die rests against and the cutting surface will often be ideal. This means that if you have a well made tool to put in this type of press you will be able to start your patch-up at about 99%, depending on the material being cut. If you have an old beat up machine that never comes down straight twice, and was made with a cutting surface that has more hills and traps than your favorite golf course, then your patch up may start down in the 30-40% range.
It is for good reason that there has been much talk about setting up your press permanently with a sheet that levels the footprint (takes out the hills and traps), it works and will save you tons of time and add die life as well. By spending this initial set-up time just once on both old presses and new presses you should be able to bring the percentage of nice even cutting up into the 90% range before you need to start your spot up. Again your perfect press situation must now be matched with a perfect tooling situation and profits will soar! Give us a call if you want to find out more about leveling or footprinting your press.
So to answer your question - there is no real answer. Every press and every press person will have their own intricacies that need to be dealt with. Starting the patching process when you are just starting to see the first cuts penetrate the material is ideal, you just have to work towards getting as much of the image coming through the material at the same time as you can.
Starting Patch-Up at the Right Point During Make-Ready is important, let's explore the basics....
On a cutting press, with a new job, at the beginning of a make ready - What % of cutting does a cutting pressman start to patch-up the make-ready sheet to get the most mileage from the die?
This is a tricky question in that having a die last forever and making a profit on a job are often two very different things. Balancing die costs, press time, run length, and the likelihood of repeating the order in the future can become very complex. In most shops an operator is given a set amount of time that he or she should take in order to make the job ready to run. The shorter this given amount of time tends to get the higher the percentage you talk about in your question tends to be. If your press and make-ready system are set-up well, you will not necessarily have to sacrifice die life for a quick make-ready.
"Spot up" (patch-up) is the process where a pressman uses tapes or other thickness building devices (paper, metals, etc….) to add thickness to areas of the press and the die that tend to be lower than the rest. On a brand new smaller platen type press or a press with a well made die-set used as the cutting surface - the surface that the die rests against and the cutting surface will often be ideal. This means that if you have a well made tool to put in this type of press you will be able to start your patch-up at about 99%, depending on the material being cut. If you have an old beat up machine that never comes down straight twice, and was made with a cutting surface that has more hills and traps than your favorite golf course, then your patch up may start down in the 30-40% range.
It is for good reason that there has been much talk about setting up your press permanently with a sheet that levels the footprint (takes out the hills and traps), it works and will save you tons of time and add die life as well. By spending this initial set-up time just once on both old presses and new presses you should be able to bring the percentage of nice even cutting up into the 90% range before you need to start your spot up. Again your perfect press situation must now be matched with a perfect tooling situation and profits will soar! Give us a call if you want to find out more about leveling or footprinting your press.
So to answer your question - there is no real answer. Every press and every press person will have their own intricacies that need to be dealt with. Starting the patching process when you are just starting to see the first cuts penetrate the material is ideal, you just have to work towards getting as much of the image coming through the material at the same time as you can.
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