Page 29 - Corru Jan- June20 final3

Many of the BHDs are technical, but not days! The successful
communicators. Lump them together on a trade house must be
project and you can imagine the potential automated, accurate
for confusion or conflicting information. and systemized to
The role of the tooling vendor is important survive.
because this is an outsider who will furnish
a fresh, technical viewpoint to the project. The key values to
The reason boxers have favorite vendors is measure a print
for this very reason. They have a confidence plate and cutting die
that their favorite PPV and the CDV have vendor by are:
an intimate knowledge of their individual l Speed of delivery
and unique box operation, what works
and what doesn’t work. This intellectual l C om p et i t i v e
asset is rarely acknowledged and mostly pricing
underappreciated. However, the general
consensus among plate and die vendors is l T o o l i n g
that appreciation is recognized by way of performance
repeat orders and committed clients! Typically, and
unfortunately for the
The Ordering boxer, the ordering
How NOT to place an order for cutting priority is usually in
dies and print plates: that order.
l “I want a cutting die tomorrow!” A common misstep
is bypassing critical, pre-press alteration percentage of boxes are truly produced
l “I need print plates from this sketch, propositions for the print plates and cutting as a one-out. “Out”s refer to the step and
please.” repeat multiples of a design. “Up”s refer to
dies to “engineer” effective performance
This may seem funny, but in reality, it is on press. This can be attributed to a the through-the-press or press direction
and “out”s refers to across the machine
often accurate. It is truly this urgent in reluctance of a box sale representative to or web. Examples would be: 3-out—1 x 3;
most cases as, by the time the product return to the agency/marketing group to 3-out—1-up x 3-out; or 3-out—one going
company, marketing department, ad request minor design changes at this final through the machine and three running
agency, distribution and box sales get stage. It could also be from an eroded across (see Diagram 1). Not everyone
organized, most of the project timeline timeline that prohibits deliberation on uses the same terminology to describe a
has been exhausted and the boxer is likely performance enhancement options. The multiple-out arrangement, so this is one of
already behind schedule. It is now time easy way out is to consent to default, the first bits of information that must be
to order plates and dies, but all of the standard issue tooling. verified.
tiny details may or may not have yet been Before tooling can be ordered, we must
revealed. Once that is verified, the next question
first decide on the machinery we will
The most common issue with shadow convert with and what material will be is whether the speculated layout will
fit the designated machine. Very often,
boxing is that it always seems easier when printed or diecut. What machinery choices the parameters of what the machine will
there isn’t an opponent punching back. do I have, what size is the machine and print or cut are based on the maximum
As I mentioned earlier, the trade vendors how can the proposed design be utilized or minimum sheet size the machine can
who make printing plates and cutting dies across this equipment? handle. This can cause issues with tooling
literally live by the revenue from the boxer’s Until now, everyone who has reviewed because all tools need an extra margin
orders. Large box producers know this and the design and graphics has been looking of wood (in the case of a cutting die) or
wield a great amount of leverage with the at a single box. The layout may have been mount material (in the case of a printing
smaller, usually independent, trade house. two-dimensional or 3D, but usually we’re plate) beyond the finished sheet size to
This condition has transformed the pre- evaluating just the one design, a full pallet carry the cutting rules or print elements.
press trade industry into something similar rendering or a store display model. With an effort to maximize machinery
to your one-hour oil change operation. throughput per revolution, many items fall
Box houses expect, and usually receive, For box convertor planning, we need to in the category of “dangerously close to the
custom plates and dies in two to five determine the arrangement. Only a small limits!”

The Corrugator | January - June 2020 27