[Q&A] What is Cutting? - KevinCarey

[Chris]

What is Cutting?
Author : Kevin Carey


When we think of “cut­ting” we gen­er­ally are envi­sion­ing a slic­ing action, like a pair of scis­sors. See right. In this tool the upper blade and lower blade grad­u­ally slice or split the mate­r­ial as the blades are forced closed.

Using iden­ti­cal prin­ci­ples if we slid the tip of a fin­ger along the exposed cut­ting edge of a new blade, see left, we would obvi­ously suf­fer a severe cut almost instantly. How­ever, if we pressed our fin­ger directly down onto the cut­ting edge, a sig­nif­i­cant amount more pres­sure than the pre­vi­ous exam­ple would be required to pen­e­trate the skin and tissue.

When we press a mate­r­ial against the cut­ting edges of a flat die, in this case our fin­ger tip, the skin is depressed as the cut­ting edge com­presses the rel­a­tively soft mate­r­ial. See below right. Obvi­ously with suf­fi­cient pres­sure and a sharp cut­ting edge, we would cut into our fin­ger, but this exam­ple clearly illus­trates two dis­tinct meth­ods of cut­ting, using an iden­ti­cal tool. The more com­monly per­ceived method of cut­ting, incre­men­tal cut­ting or a slic­ing action, and the less obvi­ous press­ing or simul­ta­ne­ous cut­ting action.

In platen diecut­ting we pri­mar­ily use Simul­ta­ne­ous Cut­ting, how­ever, we will exam­ine both Incre­men­tal and Simul­ta­ne­ous Cut­ting and the types of diecut­ting presses, which use one or a com­bi­na­tion of both.

The term platen derives from the Mid­dle Eng­lish plateine, from the Old French pla­tine, mean­ing metal plate, from Vul­gar Latin plat­tus, and from the Greek pla­tus. These terms are often trans­lated to mean­ing a smooth, flat, rel­a­tively thin, rigid body of uni­form thick­ness, or a sheet of ham­mered, rolled, or cast metal, or a flat piece of metal form­ing part of a machine. See below left.

In sum­ma­tion there are two basic types of cut­ting action. These are Incre­men­tal Cut­ting and Simul­ta­ne­ous Cut­ting. As we will see in sub­se­quent arti­cles, Platen Diecut­ting is pri­mar­ily Simul­ta­ne­ous Cut­ting, how­ever, it often employs Incre­men­tal Prin­ci­ples in the process. In con­trast Rotary or Cylin­der Diecut­ting is pri­mar­ily Incre­men­tal Cut­ting, how­ever, part of this cut­ting action uses Simul­ta­ne­ous Prin­ci­ples in the process.









Source : www.die-cuttingworks.com