What You Should Know About Rotary Die Cutting

The Basics of the Rotary Die Cutting Process

Rotary die cutting is a common process used to manufacture simple two-dimensional labels, but rotary die cutting is used for more than just labels. Marian uses rotary die cutting to manufacture complex custom 3D components with multiple layers of differing geometries used in some of your favorite everyday products.

Rotary dies are a set of precisely machined blades on a steel cylinder with gears. The dies cut against steel anvils as they turn at varying speeds under adjustable pressures.

Typically, rotary die cutting is a roll-to-roll process, meaning materials are fed to the die from rolls as they weave over and under “feed rolls”. After cutting, the resulting part is often delivered in roll format but can also be cut into individual parts or into sheets of several parts by a second die. This all depends on a customer’s needs for their assembly processes.

Many parts that are cut by the rotary die-cutting process include through-holes and other cut outs. It’s therefore critical that the converting process includes methods to remove these unwanted pieces of material lest they become potential contamination or nuisance for our customer’s assembly. Our machinery includes air pressure, vacuum, and mechanical devices to facilitate this removal of excess material. We also add camera vision systems to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the process.

Check out some additional rapid manufacturing methods we use for creating prototypes as well as finished parts and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Marian's Custom Die Cutting Machinery

At Marian, we design and build our own rotary die cutting machines for use only at our 13 locations around the globe. We don’t sell or provide these machines outside of our Marian family. We produce many variations of our machines in a variety of sizes that have multiple cutting stations to accommodate various sizes of parts and materials and have more than 300 of our rotary machines in service across the globe today. With this capability and capacity, we can customize a machine to produce special or specific characteristics of our customer’s part.

In mid-2017, Marian broke ground on an addition to our Indianapolis headquarters to move our once small machine shop to a brand new, much larger space. This expansion project added more than 10,000 sq. ft. of machine shop space where 11 full-time machinists and machine assemblers produce, maintain, and repair Marian’s fleet of machines used all over the world. Learn more about this addition here.

Outside of rotary die cutting, we also use a number of other die cutting and converting processes. Contact us to learn more about how we can help with your next custom solution for your application. We love a challenge!