Written By Mark Batson Baril
That job needs to be running at 145 strokes per minute, your parts are stuck in the die on every third impression, and the job is getting hotter by the minute. Now what!
Everyone has the problem, and everyone admits it at one time or another. Whether it is to your fellow worker, your customer, or to your boss, we have all had to admit that we just can’t get the parts to come out of that tooling fast and clean enough. It’s quite a dilemma. Tons of money has been put into planning materials, and printing, and tooling, and the right press, and the right operator, and when the time comes to put it all together we just can’t get the parts to do what they’re supposed to do. There are many ways to set-up ejection. In fact there probably should be a different way of setting up ejection for every material there is out there. Ejection rubber comes in every durometer, cell type, surface emboss style, recovery rate, thickness, and color the mind can imagine but sometimes there is another piece to the puzzle that rubber just doesn’t cover. Let’s tackle a couple of parts to this puzzle that many of us have either never tried or have never heard of.
Puzzle Part # 1
DriCote by Bostik – It’s not too often that we talk about a specific product but what the heck, this stuff may be the miracle drug for the cutting press operator. Spray this product on your cutting blades and the parts will just fly out of the press.
DriCote is a Blade and Bit cutting lubricant that is sprayed on. It’s most typical application is in the woodworking industry where it is sprayed onto saw blades, router bits, joiner blades, etc…. . It adheres and dries in just seconds and depending on the material you are cutting, it can create a wide variety of advantages. By spraying it on cutting blades in a typical diecutting operation – steel rule and specialty tooling - it will have some of the same effects expected in the woodworking field. It will prevent resin/glue build-ups from just about any source. It can extend blade life due to reduced friction. It reduces the heat effects caused by friction and it contains no silicone or petroleum oil making it safe for many applications. We don’t recommend DriCote for medical and food products but for your run of the mill adhesives and foams it is nearly contaminant free. It can also reduce the tonnage needed to cut. Most of all though, in a difficult die cutting situation, it can enhance the quick ejection of the parts from the tool and in many cases will keep that residue build-up from happening at all.
In particular I have had a recent exposure in the foam cutting field where the normal drag caused by residue build-up from repeat cutting on medium density open cell foam was virtually eliminated. A fast moving press that had been brought to its’ knees several times per hour for tool cleaning is now operating at non-stop full capacity with two applications per day of this lubricant. Given the right situation, this product can work wonders.
Puzzle Part # 2
Feed-Thru Punches on Steroids - How many times has the speed of your press, the waste free quality of your parts, or the length of time needed to set-up your job been effected by a specialty material not working well with the feed thru punches you just bought off the shelf? If this is a problem, even every once in a while, keep reading.
Recently I have encountered specialty feed-thru punches. Yes, I found out that not only can I order special diameters on the cut edge, the base size and the ejection bore, but a feed thru can be specially ordered to work well for certain materials. The last items that can be specially ordered are the exterior cut angle(s) (bevel angles), the interior “grab the waste” lengths, and the interior bevel angles for cutting. By combining these factors with tough to feed material specs, a sometimes difficult situation can be made easier or possible. Ask your current supplier about these special order items the next time you are having troubles or anticipate a problem with a new material or shape.
A recent experience led me to the KEN KUTS-ALL PUNCH. In this particular case the punch was built as a specialty item for the abrasives industry. Because the tooling must cut through two very different types of material and then grab and pull off the cutting plate a thick and tough to cut material, the angles, depths and hardness had to be changed to make the punches work well. The result is now an in-stock item that cuts longer, grabs better, and sets-up faster than the standard punch for the abrasives industry. You will pay more, but in the right situation they are worth their weight in gold.
Filling your pockets full of tricks makes you a specialist in your field, so keep in-tune with the latest and please share some when you can. We'll look forward to hearing your tricks of the trade!
That job needs to be running at 145 strokes per minute, your parts are stuck in the die on every third impression, and the job is getting hotter by the minute. Now what!
Everyone has the problem, and everyone admits it at one time or another. Whether it is to your fellow worker, your customer, or to your boss, we have all had to admit that we just can’t get the parts to come out of that tooling fast and clean enough. It’s quite a dilemma. Tons of money has been put into planning materials, and printing, and tooling, and the right press, and the right operator, and when the time comes to put it all together we just can’t get the parts to do what they’re supposed to do. There are many ways to set-up ejection. In fact there probably should be a different way of setting up ejection for every material there is out there. Ejection rubber comes in every durometer, cell type, surface emboss style, recovery rate, thickness, and color the mind can imagine but sometimes there is another piece to the puzzle that rubber just doesn’t cover. Let’s tackle a couple of parts to this puzzle that many of us have either never tried or have never heard of.
Puzzle Part # 1
DriCote by Bostik – It’s not too often that we talk about a specific product but what the heck, this stuff may be the miracle drug for the cutting press operator. Spray this product on your cutting blades and the parts will just fly out of the press.
DriCote is a Blade and Bit cutting lubricant that is sprayed on. It’s most typical application is in the woodworking industry where it is sprayed onto saw blades, router bits, joiner blades, etc…. . It adheres and dries in just seconds and depending on the material you are cutting, it can create a wide variety of advantages. By spraying it on cutting blades in a typical diecutting operation – steel rule and specialty tooling - it will have some of the same effects expected in the woodworking field. It will prevent resin/glue build-ups from just about any source. It can extend blade life due to reduced friction. It reduces the heat effects caused by friction and it contains no silicone or petroleum oil making it safe for many applications. We don’t recommend DriCote for medical and food products but for your run of the mill adhesives and foams it is nearly contaminant free. It can also reduce the tonnage needed to cut. Most of all though, in a difficult die cutting situation, it can enhance the quick ejection of the parts from the tool and in many cases will keep that residue build-up from happening at all.
In particular I have had a recent exposure in the foam cutting field where the normal drag caused by residue build-up from repeat cutting on medium density open cell foam was virtually eliminated. A fast moving press that had been brought to its’ knees several times per hour for tool cleaning is now operating at non-stop full capacity with two applications per day of this lubricant. Given the right situation, this product can work wonders.
Puzzle Part # 2
Feed-Thru Punches on Steroids - How many times has the speed of your press, the waste free quality of your parts, or the length of time needed to set-up your job been effected by a specialty material not working well with the feed thru punches you just bought off the shelf? If this is a problem, even every once in a while, keep reading.
Recently I have encountered specialty feed-thru punches. Yes, I found out that not only can I order special diameters on the cut edge, the base size and the ejection bore, but a feed thru can be specially ordered to work well for certain materials. The last items that can be specially ordered are the exterior cut angle(s) (bevel angles), the interior “grab the waste” lengths, and the interior bevel angles for cutting. By combining these factors with tough to feed material specs, a sometimes difficult situation can be made easier or possible. Ask your current supplier about these special order items the next time you are having troubles or anticipate a problem with a new material or shape.
A recent experience led me to the KEN KUTS-ALL PUNCH. In this particular case the punch was built as a specialty item for the abrasives industry. Because the tooling must cut through two very different types of material and then grab and pull off the cutting plate a thick and tough to cut material, the angles, depths and hardness had to be changed to make the punches work well. The result is now an in-stock item that cuts longer, grabs better, and sets-up faster than the standard punch for the abrasives industry. You will pay more, but in the right situation they are worth their weight in gold.
Filling your pockets full of tricks makes you a specialist in your field, so keep in-tune with the latest and please share some when you can. We'll look forward to hearing your tricks of the trade!
No comments:
Post a Comment