Full Circle

While the idea of online die ordering would seem to be a "no-brainer," Deehr believes that until a printer is well versed in "die terminology," speaking with a real person is probably their best bet. What could, and does, happen, he explains, is because customers may not fully understand the differences in steels, coatings or other aspects of "line extensions," they can easily end up with an inferior die or a very expensive die outside their cost-per-cut optimization range, and which far exceeds their needs. While this happens frequently at small print shops that tend to shop around and buy on price only, it can hold true for even the larger converters, who may have tooling budgets of $500,000 or more and watch every penny of it.