Rotary vs Flat-Bed Die Cutting

There is little doubt that the Rotary Die-Cutter has traditionally been the industry standard for die-cutting printed boxes in large volumes. As the packaging landscape changes it is important to note the current trends in packaging and the implications on your machinery purchasing decisions. There are certainly many reasons to now ask if the Rotary or Flat-Bed is the right tool for your job. Below we will outline some of the reasons for investing in Flat-Bed Die Cutting.

More and more customers are looking to migrate their packaging from 2 or 3 color flexo to high graphic packaging, we will look at shelf-ready packaging as a separate topic, but all the trends out of Europe show us that this is a shift in the market that will follow through to Asia. Whether the high quality printing is done via sheet fed flexo or via Lithographic print laminated onto corrugated board, high graphic printing presents unique challenges when it comes to Die-Cutting.

China Market

In 2000 Flatbed Die Cut only represent 10% of the total diecut products, but now more than 60% of Corrugated are done in Flatbed Diecut.

All beer and beverage such as Wahaha (the main beverage in China) also diecut by flatbed Die Cut.

Why?

  • Because this is the best economical solution as the quality is better and very necessary for the auto filling on the consumer goods.
  • The finish product is lean and clean, no need for manual stripping which mean reduce manpower.
  • Production output for predictable.

High quality printing is often varnished, when putting this type of material through a Rotary die-cutter, the weight of the pile of board in the feeder along with the gate and feed rollers will more often than not mark the varnish producing a sub par result. The PE-1620-SL-Extra from Brausse Eterna has a special “Zero Scuff” feeder to ensure the sheet looks as good coming out of the machine as it went in.

High Quality printing almost always require a very precise registration of the print to the die-cut, with quite often almost no bleed. This is an area where the Rotary simply has no control. The Brausse-Eterna “L-EXTRA” series die-cutters boast a front and side lay registration along with a Servo controlled delivery table to ensure perfect registration on every sheet.

When clay coated board is Rotary Die-Cut it has a tendency to crack along the creases, as does varnish that’s applied to the board. Flat-Bed Die-Cutters allow the use of “Channel matrix” on the cutting creases that form the creases taking the stress out of the fold and greatly reducing cracking.

As mentioned above, shelf-ready packaging is coming to our markets. As well as the issues related to high graphic printing mentioned above there are also other intricacies that apply to Die-Cutting Shelf-ready packing.

It’s notoriously difficult to stack a complex interlocked job off the back of a Rotary Die-cutter without a large investment in handling equipment. Shelf-ready packaging often entails 4 or 6 up from a sheet The Flat-bed die-cutter is able to effortlessly stack these bundles onto either a pallet or neat bundles.

More and more customers are looking to incorporate easy opening devices into their cartons. These can be in the form of Perforations, zipper rule or similar. The Rotary Die-Cutter uses a soft anvil for cutting, this makes fine perforations impossible and Easy opening devices often tear or fail. Flat-Bed Diecutting is steel against steel, this makes very fine perfing down to 1mm achievable for a carton that performs every time for the customer.

On a Rotary Die-Cutter, stripping is not an exact science, if the tooling is in good condition we should be able to remove the majority of waste with the die or an additional beating section. Flat-Bed Die-Cutting utilises a male and female tool that ensure that every piece of waste no matter how fine can be ejected from the job. It is very common now for food manufacturers to be quite concerned about the possibility of stripping waste ending up in their food product and will reject pallets where even one small piece of scrap waste is visible.

On average Flat-Bed die-cutting formes are 2 to 3 times cheaper than tooling for a Rotary Die-Cutter. This is an important fact to consider, especially on short-run jobs where the cost of tooling can be greater than that of materials and labor.

Shanghai Eterna Machinery Co., Ltd. was established in Shanghai, China in 1995. Now we have three manufacturing factories in Shanghai, who are focused on producing and supplying the corresponding technical supports for automatic and semi automatic flat bed diecutting and creasing machines for corrugated boards, high speed folding and gluing machines, automatic flat bed diecutting and creasing machines for cardboards as well as foil stamping machines.

In combination with European engineers, our R&D team adopts advanced international design software and method so as to greatly enhance the products design, analysis and application capability.

Assembly and tuning workshop for diecutters for the corrugated boards

Assembly and tuning workshop for diecutters for the folding cartons and foil  stamping machines

For the customers, the turnover mainly depends on the good working performance of the equipments. To ensure of this, Eterna is dedicating on supplying the most suitable production solution for his existing and potential customers.

  • Max Sheet Size : 1620 mm X 1200 mm
  • Stock Range : E, B, C, A and AB corrugated boards (Thickness : 1 – 8.5 mm)
  • Main Motor Power : 35 KW
  • Total Net Weight : 32 Tons

ETERNA USERS

EUROPE

Kappa, , Cartotecnica Rigon Srl Italy, Cartonatges trilla, SA Spain.

USA

Appletiser contains 100% apples. It has no preservatives, additives, colorants or added sugar. When the beverage market is segmented according to specific.

ASIA

Chen Loong, YFY, Harta, Boxpak, Yoshida Japan, New Toyo Vietnam , Boxpack, Masterpack.

Indonesia

PT.Sentralindo Teguh Gemilang (2), PT.Surindo Teguh Gemilang, Dayacipta Kemasindo (2), Wirajaya Packindo, Cipta Multi Buana Perkasa, Asiapapercon Internusa, Dwi Aneka (2), Mulia Prima Perkasa (2), Surabaya Mekabox, Kemas Super Indonesia, Satria Graha Sempurna, Intan Ustrix, Rapipack.

Model Selection

1620 Extra Series Automatic Diecutting & Creasing Machine

Extra series automatic diecutting & creasing machines are upgraded classic Eterna products, enjoying a high reputation among customers. The machines are new upgraded, same as Maxcut lead edge feeder, more accurate and positive feeding. Extra series can handle E, B,C,A and AB flute corrugated board (1~9 mm) smoother. The feeder section which is more intelligent is perfect fro running materials like not only the common printed corrugated board, but also litho-laminated board.

We adopt the most advanced center line system which makes the cutting die and stripping die centered quickly. For normal cutting die, it takes only 7-8 minutes to set up. The sheet size, especially the sheet direction, is 1200 mm which can meet the demand of make-up, largely improving the working efficiency.

Meeting the demands of every customer with personalized service is what we Eterna people always keep doing. You can customize the feeding accuracy and delivery section mode. 20 years of experience in designing and manufacturing machines guarantees the stability.

1620 Action Series Automatic Diecutting & Creasing Machine

The look of action series automatic diecutting & creasing machines is designed by Bobst. We paid close attention to the ergonomics, thus the machine is more compact and easy to use.

Action series sheet feeding grid height are adjustable according to sheet quality and thickness for smooth and precise feeding. Equipped with 10.4’ color touch screen operation panel gives total control of the machine and graphic display machine parameters, job setting, fault diagnosis and etc., more direct and operator friendly. The maximum mechanical speed is 5800 cycles/hour, more efficient and productive.

Mirror Machines Dual Diecutter Working Station

Elite and Action models are designed with an option of combining two machines as “Mirror”. The mirror means space saving and reducing one skilled operator, hence a great deal of cost saving.

1620/2100 Series Semi-auto Diecutting & Creasing Machines

To meet customers’ demand, Eterna offers cost-effective semi-automatic diecutting & creasing machines, the maximum sheet size reaches 2100×1300mm. World renowned brand components ensure the quality and good performance. Semi-automatic die-cutters are equipped with stripping function and thus, greatly improve working efficiency.

All semi-auto diecutting machines are with high pile delivery system with auto pile lifter. You can directly pack the corrugated boards, quick and convenient.

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