MACHINERYAutomatic platen die cutter
The Bobst Novacut is the automatic platen die cutter every Eastface carton is cut and creased on: it strikes the printed sheet against the cutting forme, holds registration across the run, and strips and blanks in line.
The press decides how a carton looks. The die cutter decides whether it erects square, closes cleanly and runs on your line. Below is what it holds and how it is checked.
On our floor
Three things this machine decides, photographed on our floor.
One sheet, one strike, four operations. Every station below is on the specification further down this page, drawn where it sits on the machine.
The Novacut as configured on our floor. Stripping and blanking are on the machine, not on a bench behind it.
01Feeder
Printed sheets are lifted one at a time off the pile and squared against the front lays. AUTOPLATEN registration presents the sheet to the forme the same way on impression fifty thousand as on impression one.
02Cutting and creasing
The sheet is struck flat against a steel rule forme locked into the chase above it. The gold rules in the drawing cut; the blunt ones between them crease, and a crease is a controlled bruise in the board rather than a cut.
03Stripping
Pins come down through the sheet and push the waste into the bin under the machine. The lower frame is open where each pin lands, so the tooling is made for this dieline only.
04Blanking
The sheet arrives as one piece and leaves as separated blanks. Nobody breaks a skid apart by hand between this machine and the folder gluer.
05Delivery
Cut and creased blanks stack squared in the pile, and the lot moves to the Bobst Novafold behind it on the same floor. Nothing is packed onto a truck between die cutting and gluing.
The plant runs one die cutter. A sheet that was printed here is cut here, on the same floor and inside the same climate. There is no second line.
The same six rows the homepage press room band publishes, with what each line decides for your carton beside it. The plant does not publish a model number for this machine.
Type
Automatic platen die cutter
The sheet is struck flat against a steel rule forme rather than rolled past a rotary die, and that holds a tight tolerance on a folding carton. A window aperture stays centered on its panel and a foil block stays inside its border instead of creeping across a long run.
Feeding
AUTOPLATEN registration
The sheet is presented to the platen the same way every time, so a carton cut in the last hour of a run drops into your filling line the way the first one did.
Changeover
CENTERLINE system
A returning die goes back to the position it ran in instead of being dialed in again by hand. A reorder off a stored job record is a repeat, not a new setup.
Monitoring
Die identification and impression counters
Strikes are counted against the die record, so a worn forme is caught by the equipment, not by your customer finding a ragged edge. A forme wears gradually, and gradual wear is easy for a person to miss.
Control
Automatic lockout beyond set limits
Past its limits the machine stops instead of cutting worse cartons. Tolerance is checked against the same limits at the end of a run as at the start.
Output
Inline stripping and blanking
Waste is pushed out of the sheet and the blanks are stacked on the machine, so what reaches the folder gluer is clean board, with no waste attached and no handling step in between.
The die cutter sits on the same floor as the press that printed the sheet, so a sheet moves from one to the other the same shift and inside the same climate. Board that picks up or loses moisture between the two cuts to a different size than the die was made for.
A platen die cutter does four things to a printed sheet in a single strike and the sheet leaves as separated blanks. Each of the four decides something different about the carton.
| Operation | What happens | What it decides |
|---|---|---|
| Cutting | Steel rule in the forme cuts the outline of the blank, the window aperture and any hang tab or lock slot. | The finished dimensions of the carton, and whether an aperture sits where the artwork drew it. |
| Creasing | Blunt rule presses a channel into the board against a matrix, compressing the fibers rather than cutting them. | Where the carton folds, how square it erects, and whether a laminate cracks along the fold. |
| Stripping | The waste between and around the blanks is pushed out of the sheet in line, on the machine. | Whether the skid that reaches the folder gluer is clean board or board with waste still hanging off it. |
| Blanking | The separated blanks are collected in line and stacked for the next operation. | How the blanks are presented to folding and gluing, and how much handling sits between the two. |
A crease is a controlled bruise in the board. Too shallow and the panel folds where the board decides, not where the dieline says; too deep and the outer liner splits along the line. The crease is set against the board and the finish on it, so board grade and lamination are part of the die cutting conversation.
A die cutter is judged on whether the strike lands in the same place on sheet fifty thousand as on sheet one. AUTOPLATEN registration presents the sheet to the platen the same way every time, and the specification leads with it.
Tolerance stacks. A carton a fraction long, with a crease a fraction off its line and an aperture crept toward its edge, can still be folded by hand. A cartoner running at speed may not erect it. It jams, and the jam stops the line.
A cutting forme is a consumable. It cuts well for a known number of impressions, then gradually less well. Impression counters track the strikes against the die record and lock the machine out beyond set limits, so the equipment makes that call, not the operator.
Before any tooling is cut, the plant folds a physical prototype in the production board, around the product it will hold. Structural design and a prototype are included in the quote. A structural problem costs least to fix before the forme exists.
The die cutter is on the floor of one plant in Piplaj, on the edge of Ahmedabad, with the press in front of it and the folder gluer behind it. A sheet is printed, coated, die cut, folded and glued without leaving the building, and a job keeps one specification and one part number from plate to pallet.
Certificates for every mark above are available on request, and a factory tour is the quickest way to check any of it.
A blank leaves this machine flat and clean. What happens either side of it is on the same floor.
Printing
The six color offset press, with two units kept free for spot inks, closed-loop color correction on every sheet and inline sheet inspection. It decides how the carton looks.
The full specification
Folding and gluing
The folder gluer, pre-breaking every crease and laying a controlled glue bead on straight line, crash lock, four and six corner and sleeve structures. It decides whether the seam holds.
The full specification
The floor
The 90,000 square foot floor the three machines sit on, the route a sheet takes across it in seven stops, and the climate control that keeps the board stable.
Inside the plant
A Bobst Novacut automatic platen die cutter, with AUTOPLATEN registration on the feed, CENTERLINE changeover, die identification with impression counters, automatic lockout beyond set limits, and inline stripping and blanking. It is on the same floor as the press, so a printed sheet reaches it the same shift and inside the same climate.
The cutting forme is made against the dieline approved for your carton, and structural design and a physical prototype are included in the quote rather than billed separately. The tooling is held against your part number, so a reorder returns to the same die in the same position without new tooling. A repeat takes 8 days in production; a new order takes 15 to 20.
Yes. A supplied dieline is checked against the board, the finish and the way the carton has to erect on your line, and anything that would not run is raised before tooling is cut rather than after. If the file is sound it is used as it stands.
Registration is held across the run and dimensional checks are made against the approved dieline in the plant’s own laboratory, alongside carton formation testing, rather than at the start of the run alone. Impression counters are validated against the die record and the machine locks out beyond set limits, so a forme that has gone past its life stops the machine instead of cutting worse cartons.
Yes. An aperture, a euro slot or a delta or rocker tab, and the slots a crash lock bottom needs, are all cut in the same strike as the outline, so they cost tooling, not an extra operation. Where a window is patched with film, the patch is applied to the inside face after cutting.
Last reviewed
The clip at the top of this page is our own machine on our own floor. A factory tour is the longer version, planned around the carton you are sourcing. Landed cost runs 20 to 30 percent below a comparable US supplier quote.
