Page 8 - THE INDEPENDENT

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The process of die cutting is the technique of cutting out a design or pieces from a sheet or roll of material using a sharp-edged metal object which we call a die. This technique was invented almost 200 years ago to help processes in the shoe making industry become more productive and profitable. Previously, all of the hole punching was done by hand. It was a very labour intensive, time consuming, and costly process. Prior to this new technology there was a lot of variance between shoes which led to more waste, but with the invention of the first die cutting tools, cobblers were able to create dies for sole patterns that were consistent and reliable. This streamlined the industry and allowed for the mass production and consistent replication of shoe sizes everywhere.
Over the next century the die cutting industry was advancing at a steady pace. As more functions for this technique were created, the developments paved the way for the first die cutting machines. These machines were designed to run on a belt system making the process more efficient, and from there the technology advanced and so too did the die cutting process.
For shoe making, it was the introduction of a swing-arm clicker press that revolutionised the industry. By using different dies simultaneously, this enabled multiple shapes and sizes to be die cut. This allowed cobblers to make assorted parts of the shoes with these new advances, allowing for more shoes to be made in less time and considerably reducing their costs. Thank you, die cutting.
As time went on more and more industries made use of this die cutting technology, and as each sector adopted the technology and made their own adaptions, other variations evolved. Clicking dies are used in a clicking press, dinking dies are used in a dinking machine but die cutting is a general term that is used for all variations. Die cutting became a very popular manufacturing process across sectors and a variety of different materials were used such as rubber, foil, cloth, corrugated board, papers, plastics, and even sheet metal to produce gaskets. Labels and cardboard are used in today’s machines to make an array of different components and products.
Although all this technology was available within industrial sectors, it wasn’t until the late 1970s that it became available to consumers in schools and homes. It was the vision of an art teacher named LaDorna Eichenberg who sought an easier way to cut shapes for her classroom needs. Together, LaDorna and her husband Robert, an engineer, used their combined skills, knowledge, and life savings to create the first hand-operated die cutting machine, the Ellison Letter MachineTM. Today, Sizzix is still one of the largest manufacturers of die cutting machines and dies on the market, Under the company name Ellison®