Plastic coated cylinders for the Paperfox cylinder die cutters

On the Paperfox H-1, H-2, and H-500A cylinder die cutters, plastic cutting plates must be placed under and over the punching tool, as shown in the video below.

When using plastic coated rollers, the usage of the upper plastic cutting plate is not required and since the cutting force is distributed over a smaller area, it is also possible to punch thicker materials in this way.

Plastic coated cylinders can make the work much more productive, but there are some disadvantages to this solution:

• The positioning pins can be bent by the plastic cylinder, so it is advisable to use other positioning solutions (eg pieces of cardboard sticked on the ejector rubber). You can read more about positioning options in the Solutions to align cylinder die cutters to the printed printed pattern blog post.
• The punched sheets are not prevented from curling up, so they may jam under the safety cover. This error can be eliminated by lifting up the cover. Remove the protective cover and 4 pcs.  M10 nut as a spacer, mount it with longer (M8x25) bolts or simply place it on top of the mounting bolts.

M10 nuts have been installed as spacers under the cover and the fixing bolts have been replaced for longer.

The cover is removed from under the fixing screws and placed on them.

Cutter unit for the AH-1000 rewinder

We heve equipped a Paperfox AH-1000 rewinder with a very simple cutting unit.

Actually the "cutting unit" is a simple row of cutter blades attached to the device frame. But it works well.

Here is an other solution for slitting roll materials with the AH-1000 rewinder:

Feeder unit for the Paperfox MPE-2 electric paper punch

The Paperfox MPE-2 electric die cutter is a very useful device for cutting, punching or die cutting small products.

Now we've equipped this electric paper punch with a feeder unit. In this video the device sticks two rolls of hook and loop Velcro tapes together and cuts them into the desired length.

Certainly you can not only cut with this device. In the next video we test the device with a steel rule die and with a quite a special task.

Because there is little space left in the machine we couldn't use the usual programmable logical controller, we used an Arduino micro controller. So there is no display for setting the parameters, you can do it with your smartphone. Perhaps the younger generation will prefer this solution?

Sticking double-sided adhesive tape up to 50mm width

The Paperfox FTD-1 tape applicator can apply self adhesive tapes up to 20mm width. Now we developed a new tape applicator head prototype which can lay up to 50mm wide tapes.

The new taping head can be used in the FTD-1 similarly as the standard TD-1 head. The 50mm wide tape requires more force to cut so we made a stronger adjustable spring to hold the sheets when the knife cuts the tape.

Creasing, scoring, folding - tips and tricks

How can you get a nice creasing without cracks? How can you crease and fold sensitive digital prints, laminated or varnished sheets? A lot of factors will determine the quality of creasing.

Paper with a grammage above 150 g/m2 should be creased before folding. The most common way of creasing is the flat-bed creasing machine. The creasing should be parallel to the fibre direction of the paper, but is not always possible. The geometry of the creasing tool (2), the creasing rule (4 and the creasing pressure are crucial for achieving the best result.

1. Creasing bar
2. Creasing tool
3. Cardboard
4. Creasing rule
5 Machine table

The direction of folding is a very important factor. You can fold thinner sheets in direction "A"  without any problem, but sometimes the direction "B" (traditional method) gives a better result. The advantage of direction "B" that it "delaminates" the layers, and the layers can slide undamaged. Unfortunately modern papers not always acting in traditional way.

Folding direction after creasing

If the shape of the tool and the creasing rule are not ideal for the material to crease, then the paint or the varnish cracks, or the lamination peels off.

The paint cracks on the paper

To achieve better crease you can use rubber instead of the creasing rule. In this way the paper follows the shape of the creasing rule, it supports the paint reducing the cracking effect. This creasing method applied for example in the Paperfox KB-32 creasing machine.

1. Rubber

If the material is so sensitive that it cracks anyway, you can kiss cut the cardboard. In this way you can achieve acceptable result even if the other solutions don't work. In this way you can "crease" plastic, leather or other materials as well. Although the strength of the folding is not the best, this solution produces the flattest folding.

There are some folding samples in the following picture with a very sensitive material.

1. - The creasing made by a standard Paperfox MBE-3 flatbed creasing machine.
2. - Creasing with rubber creasing rule with a Paperfox KB-32 punching, creasing machine.
3. - Perforating with large tooth gap. Paperfox R-761 Kisscutting, creasing, perforating machine.
4. - Kiss cutting with a  Paperfox R-761 Kisscutting, creasing, perforating machine.


By scoring the sheet runs through a pair of rotating tool which is much more quicker as the traditional methods. Unfortunately the cracking effect even worse than by flatbed machines.

In this case a simple solution provides the best solution. Just wrap some insulation tape on the rotating cylinder under the creasing roller and it helps similar way as the rubber creasing rule at flatbed machines. That's way you can make a perfect creasing with a  Paperfox R-761 Kisscutting, creasing, perforating machine.

Mechanical and pneumatic paper punches

We have created similar paper punches with mechanical and pneumatic operation. 

Mechanical paper punch

Pneumatic paper punch

There are different custom punching tool sets are available. The punching tools made of hardened tool steel with Electrical discharge machining (EDM)

You can put even more sets of tools into the device.

Paperfox MP-5 die cutter prototype

Here is our new prototype:

If someone needed a bigger press, we could only solve the problem so far by modifying the machines already in production.

With the new press, you can punch up to A6-sized punches. 

We do not yet know what accessories and prices we will make for this press, and we will thank you for your suggestions.