Full Circle
Always the tail that wagged the converting dog, solid rotary die technology is now as sophisticated and efficient as any aspect of the package printing process.
by David Luttenberger, CPP
With quality and service a given, diemakers are looking toward more sophisticated and value-added options on which to hang their hats. No matter whether the die is for cutting paper, polyester or even non-wovens, new coatings and time-saving methods for hardening steel are what many diemakers feel will give them an edge in a segment that has seen more than a handful of new competitors pop up in the past few years.
"Basically, steel is steel," says Action Rotary Die's Bob Potraz. "Where the differences are is what we can do to extend die life—anything to reduce the co-efficient of friction and increase the revolution count. Allied Gear's Tom Deehr concurs.
"Anything we can do to enhance wear characteristics to provide a die that affords more value at cost-per-die reductions, we're looking at," he says. A few of the newer coating and plating technologies diemakers are currently evaluating include fine diamond, titanium carbide and ion deposition. Deehr says Allied has also tested cryogenic treating of base metals in hopes of enhancing the longevity of dies. Preliminary findings of its more proprietary technologies, claims Deehr, have yielded increased wear resistance characteristics by a factor of five. For instance, a die that would normally be expected to produce five million impressions, would produce 25 million.
Earl Warren, GM, Rotoflex Tooling Div., believes the secret to successful implementation of cryogenics is in understanding that steel treated in this manner is not necessarily "harder," but that it offers an enhancement in wear resistance. "It's a subtle but important difference," he says. Rotoflex is also still somewhat on the fence with regards to the importance of base steels.
According to Warren, there are cases where lesser grades of steel can be treated to hardnesses compatible with cutting even the most abrasive materials. "It's an area of cost savings we are still evaluating," he says.
Action's Potraz contends these new coatings will play well when put up against the more abrasive materials, such as thermal transfer, or where an exposed adhesive my tend to build up on the die.
Wade Fouts, sales manager at Wilson Manufacturing, says most of today's fine tuning and full-scale R&D efforts are being driven by the requirements imposed by these same thermal transfer materials. "That research," says Fouts, "is really driving the development of coating and platings for dies for other materials and applications."
As an aside, Action's Potraz says many of the new coatings can be applied in-house by diemakers, which will enable them to reduce lead times to printers.
On the somewhat more sophisticated side, powder-metallurgically manufactured steels and even tungsten carbide (TC) steels are being employed by diemakers, including industry veteran Schober USA. Schober President Carl Schober says these steels have been particularly successful in segmented dies, where users can simply exchange "wear zones," rather than entire dies. TC dies have continually proven themselves in high count runs.
Schober has also pioneered the use of super-hard materials and high-speed tool steels in the quest for extended die life and wear resistance.
Pouring on the heat
Ever more cognizant of printers' lead times, diemakers are also looking for variations on heat treating processes with an eye on two fronts. The first, obviously, is to find just the right process for hardening raw steel—a key step in making a long-lasting die.
The through-hardening process, which can take up to several days, is a lengthy but necessary step that cost printers valuable lead time. While through-hardened steel has performed admirably, new processes that reduce the treating process from days to just hours, while still providing adequate revolutions, are here, says Potraz. At RotoMetrics, one of the most recognized diemakers in the world, a proprietary heat treating process—not some exotic plating or coating—is what gives its dies a reputation for staying sharp longer, says Steve Lee, vice president. Other diemakers, like David K. Hart in Rosemont, PA, mentions the advent of laser hardening of blade edges as an option to consider.
Hart's president, Jim Riley, points to the steel rule die industry, where lasers have been used for several years to add localized hardness to blade edges and bevels. The trade-off there, however, would be the cost to diemakers to purchase the lasers vs. what printers and converters are willing to pay for a "laser-hardened" tool. On the flip side, however, Riley says even though the laser process creates an extremely hard edge—to about a 70 Rockwell hardness—the remainder of the die remains at a constant desired hardness.
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.
No matter what diemakers do on the front end, contends Deehr, the die station is always the first place press operators look when anything goes wrong, "So we have to be better prepared to respond. That's the bottom line."
E-Commerce
Putting a Spin on Web Die Orders and Service
Anything printers can do to forego extra time and costs to put a job on press means more to the bottom line. So wouldn't it make sense to be able to order a die online? Well, maybe—in some cases, say diemakers.
Online die orders may be fine for standard, no frills dies," contend Allied Gear's Tom Deehr. The drawback, he says, is die prices float depending on customer size, capacity, and availability. Therefore, a "standard" die ordering system probably won't work well for a diemaker with a large, diversified customer base that orders many complicated diesets.
Another potential roadblock is that 10 years ago, converters specified dies right down to the type of raw steel and platings, says Action Rotary Die's Bob Potraz. But times have changed, and many orders coming in today specify only that a die "Perform to X number of revolutions and be guaranteed. From there, they leave it up to the diemaker to be the expert."
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.
When it comes to diemakers' Web sites, Deehr still believes the best are those that inform, rather than just offer a quick method of ordering.
But for those bent on clicking and connecting, Wilson Manufacturing's sales manager, Wade Fouts, suggests looking for these online advantages
• The ability to track an order in process
• The capability to do a custom search to see die histories. This will come in handy to check when resharpens were done, or for what particular material a die might have been made to cut
• A rotating security password system to guard against pirating of quotes or pricing structures
In short, online services should "spoil you." says Fouts. And he should know. Wilson's online system emails customers in the queue and provides a die status report each morning, right through the time it's shipped—and includes all relevant tracking information, as well. Now that's customer service.
