Paper Cutting Comparison: Die Cutting versus Router Cutting
A process versus process battle shakes up our article posting routine today. In one corner, we have die cutting, a fast and accurate material profiling service. Then, over in the other corner, there's today's router cutting competitor. Round one opens, the two material cutting techniques clash. Are there any plainly obvious differences between them? For openers, die cutting is an all-in-one service, but router cutters require a linear workflow.
Processing Gains
Sourced from a top tooling service, the steel rule dies produced for a die cutting machine are incredibly detailed. They cut elaborate shapes, and the product output tends to stay relatively small. Furthermore, the intricate cuts are applied quickly because a ramming mechanism is pressing the entire pattern down all at once. Frankly, paper blanks and other material types move forward at a blur when die cutting machines get up to speed. As for a router cutting setup, well, the work isn't nearly as fast, and that's because this is an incremental service. The router blade or cutting shaft starts, it progresses around a machine-assigned edge, and it stops after the process is done. It's fast, but it does not deliver production line speeds.
Size and Output Comparisons
Whether a die cutting machine is intended as a hobbyist device or as a fast production setup, its output is always consistently accurate. The elegant lines and arcs kiss cut and fully cut the material substrate, and they do so very quickly. Looking at the blanks as they enter the equipment, multiple copies of that same intricate cutting profile are being applied to each sheet. Meanwhile, the router is busily cutting larger shapes. They have tabs and assembly points. This time around, the cardboard parts are large, more than big enough to match the height of a full-grown man. It's a shop display or a cinema marketing prop. And these two items aren't limited to two dimensions. No, the assembling parts join and lock at angles so that the router-facilitated cuts create a 3D object.
Large signage pieces are best formed by router cutting equipment. They work on thicker sections of wood or cardboard, on items that possess self-standing strength. Conversely, die cutting equipment wins out as an intricate cutting service. Capable of simultaneously creating numerous detailed material outlines, the service works best as a complete end-to-end production solution. Slower than die cutting and not nearly as capable of placing detailed shapes, router cutting is nevertheless the perfect large-scale tool for 3D signage applications. Incidentally, die cutters come in many shapes and forms, but there are higher-end laser routers out there, too.
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