Kiss-cutting machine 1

[cenelect]

I'm working for a small manufacturing company with old equipment and limited resources, and would like to re-design & automate their old rotary kiss-cutting machine. This is really an antique - dual wheel - 2 blade cutting machine that kiss-cuts roll-fed plastic tape, and am planning to build a horizontal feed-path/table, and utilize the old 'cut wheel'if possible. Utilizing stepper motors and an encoder I should be able to synchronize the speed & length of cut.

So far I've been unable to locate any general design information about die/kiss-cutting machines, and would appreciate any help finding sources for further learning.

 

[griffengm]

Cenelect,
You might try rotary die cutting or similar combination.

Griffy

 

[cenelect]

It's time to try something. Searching for info on this gave me some familiarity with die/kiss-cutting, but I haven't been able to learn much about the technical aspects. I wanted to know if a straight blade could be used, and how the cutting depth/pressure could be determined. The old dual-wheel machine has been retired, and maybe it's time to try some R & D, using the old cutting wheel.

From conversations with die manufacturers, it appears that for our application (kiss-cutting narrow, roll-fed material), that the old dual-wheel cutters are still being used, but to be able to vary the length of cut & to use several dies, I'm thinking we need a horizontal feed-in and cutting table/anvil.

I will attempt to replace the old 'rounded' blade in the old die - with a straight cutting blade, experiment with a flat cutting surface/anvil - and if it works, then a method of controlling the anvil height/pressure will be next.

Without pictures/illustrations it's probably difficult for someone to understand what I'm trying to do, and I'm wondering if it's possible to put some information up on a web-page to illustrate? *I just saw the info about 'images' and will be uploading/making those available.

 

[griffengm]

Cenelect,
What you are wanting seems to be the steel rule die cutting process used for cutting things like the cardboard circles pizzas are placed on, paper plates, or gummed labels on letter sized sheets for use on computer printers. In high volumes many of these can be rotary die cut but a lot are cut using a press, similar to a straight side metal working press.
I'm sure there is someone out there with a better grasp of this process than I. Most of what I know comes from the suppliers of our packaging goods and a project to develop dies to form nested multiple part configurations in one hit.
Two companies:

http://www.tridie.com

and

http://www.porthproducts.com

Griffy