Full Circle

Maneuvering the learning curve

No matter their differences of opinion on hardening methods or coatings, all diemakers agree on one thing: they need to continue to educate printers on the advantages of specifying the correct die for the job.

"Our learning curve has to be much steeper to keep pace with new materials so when a printer sends a sample, we don't have to start from scratch to build an appropriate die," says RotoMetrics' Lee. Allied's Deehr says one way to keep pace is to build closer relationships with material manufacturers. Another way is to look at past applications for similar materials and to establish greater databases of job information that can be recalled and added to.