17. March | Folding Boxes | Whitepaper

Make-Ready, steady, GO!

Make-ready in no time at all.

The demands on packaging manufacturers are increasing: high productivity, low machine downtimes and high-quality packaging are all required – regardless of the run length. An essential factor for the necessary productivity is the cutting-rule make-ready.

Find out how you can significantly reduce cutting-die make-ready times to a minimum and so increase your productivity and die service life. For maximum performance when die-cutting your packaging.

Make-ready in the blink of an eye.

The cutting-die is a flat tool: in theory, all cutting rules hit the cutting plate at the same time during the die-cutting process. In practice, however, there are various tolerances which can cause the rules to cut through the die-cutting material in some places but not in others. This is where a height compensation becomes necessary: so-called patching.

But make-ready takes time. And time is money. With ever-increasing demands on packaging manufacturers, ever-smaller runs and thus an increasing number of tools that have to be made-ready, the importance of time savings in the make-ready process is growing enormously.

What is make-ready? - The patching process.
During make-ready, height differences are compensated with the aid of make-ready paper/ tape. This is done on the one hand by levelling out areal tolerances, and on the other hand by placing make-ready tape behind the cutting rules at points where the material has not yet been punched through. A distinction is made between area make-ready which compensates for machine unevenness and a local patching of the cutting rules. Certain make-ready rules must be observed for this. Depending on the job and complexity, the make-ready process can take several hours.

What is make-ready for? – The influencing factors.
There are various tolerance factors that influence the scope of a knife make-ready. These include: the die-cutting machine, cutting-die and counter plate, the paperboard material and the quality of the make-ready materials. But the machine operator and the operation in its turn also have an influence on the make-ready time. Each of these factors in and of itself produces different tolerance ranges.

Make-ready results.
At the end of the make-ready process, the result is a clean cutting edge for high-quality packaging. Height compensation ensures that the die-cutting machine and tool are protected in the best possible way. This means a longer service life. Clean make-ready also ensures stable machine operation and thus an efficient die-cutting process. Technologies and services from the diemaker can help, but in addition regular training of the machine operators also supports them in efficient make-ready.

In our free whitepaper on "The main success factors for minimimum make-ready time during die-cutting", you will not only learn how make-ready works and what the most important make-ready rules are, but also how you can optimize make-ready time – while ensuring high-quality make-ready. The practical checklist will help you to do this. 

If you need additional support from our experienced specialists and would like to find out which technologies and services can best help you save valuable make-ready time, please contact us. We will be happy to answer your individual questions. Our Marbach specialist Jörg Bauer is looking forward to hearing from you: joerg.bauer@marbach.com