Die cutting plate making process: six-steps for flatbed die cutting plate making
The die-cutting plate making is divided into two parts: cutting knife plate making and the die-cutting plate making . The cutting knife plate is composed of a plate, cutting knife, creasing line, and die cutting rubber strip and so on; the bottom mold plate is composed of a bottom mold steel plate and an increased bottom mold.
Die cutting plate making process as follow steps:
Draw the die cutting chart → cutting mould plate → Cutting knife cutter and creasing line installation → open the joint point → paste the strip → test the cutting board → make the creasing bottom  mould → test the die cutting effect and put into production.
1.Drawing
Die-cutting drawing is the whole carton open drawing after the printing  which is the first key step in die-cutting plate making. In the printing plate making process, if the whole page imposition system is adopted, the die cutting drawing can be directly output in the printing plate making process, which can effectively ensure the uniform standard of the printing plate and the die cutting plate. If a manual  imposition is used in the carton printing process, the die cutting process needs to be drawn according to the actual size of the print layout. In the process of drawing the die-cutting drawing, the position of the die-cutting cutter and the position of the press-creasing line shall be clearly marked according to the national carton drawing standard. In order to ensure that the die-cutting plate is not loss plate in the plate making process, the graphic part is closed in a large area. Leave more than 2 places and do not saw off. This position is usually called bridge. The width of the bridge can be designed to be 3-6 mm for small pieces and 8-9 mm for large blocks.
2.Cutting mould plate
The mould plate can be used the materials: wooden multi-layer plywood, high-density board, electric wood board, etc. The  wood multi-layer plywood is common material which thickness is about 18 mm and the hardwood plywood is  high durability  .
The die cutting mould plate is divided in to sawing cutting mould plate and a laser cutting mould plate according to the different cutting method.
The sawing cutting is the main processing method for the current die cutting mould plate processing. The sawing machine works by the saw blade reciprocating movement upper and lower, the special super-narrow saw blade is used to making the narrow space on the die cutting mould plate for installing the cutting knife and creasing line, the thickness of the super-narrow saw blade is equal to the thickness of the cutting knife or creasing line at the corresponding position. The general thickness of  super-narrow saw blade thickness  is 0.7-2.0mm and the width of 1.5-3.0mm . The saw is equipped with an electric drill, which  drill holes on the mould plate and then we can make the saw blade through hole and cut the mould plate.
The laser cutting mould plate is carried out on a computer-controlled laser cutting machine, which is cutting the mould plate material by the high temperature generated by the laser. For the Laser cutting,  we should input the full die-cut drawing into a computer which controls the die-cutting plate and cutting. Laser cutting is highly accurate due to the use of computer control. However, there are many factors affecting the quality of cutting during the cutting process. Therefore, in actual production, it is extremely important to use previous experience to determine the processing effect. The main disadvantage of laser cutting is that the laser cutting machine is expensive, and it is generally customized by professional manufacturers.
 
3.Die cutting knife and creasing line installation (row knife)
After cutting the mould plate, we should install the cutting knife and creasing line according to the the relative position of the die-cut carton, in order to make sure the die-cutting quality,first, we should chose the good quality cutting knife and the creasing line . First, we introduce the cutting knife,the cutting knives listed in the table below which introduce the various standard cutting knives and special cutting knives’s  performance and application. As shown in Figure 18
Figure 18：Various die cutting knife line performance and application

Standard knife		0.71	23.8	soft、middle hard、hard	Ordinary box, carton die cutting
		1.07	23.8	middle hard、hard	hard material die cutting
		1.42	23.8	middle hard、hard
high knife		0.71	30、32	middle hard、hard	blister packaging box, leather, foam plastic and  cartons with special requirements die  cutting.
		1.07	30、32、40、50and so on	middle hard、hard
		1.42	30、32、40、50 and so on	middle hard、hard
Special knife line	Square teeth Knife	0.71	Arbitrary tooth space	hard	According to the corresponding requirements of die-cut products, there are a variety of special cutting lines to choose .
		1.42
	Die Cutting-creasing on Combination knife	0.71	4/4、5/5、10/10 and so on	Middle hard
		1.42
	Corrugated knife	0.71	3.2、4.8、6.4 19.1、25.4and so on	middle hard
	Zipper knife	0.71	21.3-25.4	hard
	Sharp knife	0.71	1.5×1.5	hard

Die cutting knife can be divided into soft knife and hard knife according to hardness. The soft knife does not mean that the cutting edge is soft, but the body of the knife adopts a low hardness HRC35, and is quenched in the edge portion of the soft knife. The hardness reaches HRC56. The soft knife cutting line can bend a small arc and radius as a whole. The hard knife refers to the overall hardening of the die cutting knife to HRC45, and the overall body has a high strength.
Die cutting knife is divided into standard knife and bimodal knife according to the shape of the cutting edge. Bimodal knife is recommended for paperboard with die cutting thickness greater than 0.5mm. This kind of knife has two oblique knives, which can effectively reduce the negative effect of the two convex surfaces. And the cutting edge is extremely sharp and easy to cut into the cardboard.
When choosing a high quality die cutting knife, you should pay attention to the horizontal treatment or straight-line treatment of the knife peak. The knife after horizontal treatment is better and more durable for die cutting paper, and has higher stability and precision, and is not easy to crack after bending. As shown in Figure 5.

The creasing line series product- creasing line is used to complete the creasing of the carton folding on the die cutting plate. The thickness of the creasing line is usually 0.7mm, 1.42mm, 2.13mm, etc., and the height of the creasing line is 22-23.8mm.
The principle of selecting the creasing line is that the thickness of the creasing line is greater than the thickness of the paperboard. The height of creasing line is equal to the height of creasing knife minus the paperboard thickness and minus 0.05-0.1mm.
4. Open the connection dot.
In the die cutting plate making, opening connection dot is an indispensable process for opening the surface. Connection dot is a small opening of a certain width of the die cutting knife edge. During the die cutting, the carton and the waste edge of the part are still connected together, so the carton and the waste edge after the die-cutting are not scattered, ensuring feeding paper and delivering paper smoothly.
Special equipment should be used to open the connection dot: Nick grinder machine, use the grinding wheel to grind the connection dot, do not use the hammer and tweezers to open the connection point, otherwise it will damage the cutting line and the angle, and it will easily cause burrs in the connection dot. Do not open the connection dot in this position because the position of die cutter across the bridge is suspended.
The width of the connection dot has a size ranging from 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0 mm, etc. The usual common specification is 0.4 mm. The connection dot is usually grinded in a hidden place where the molded product is not visible, and the connection dot at the appearance after molding should be as small as possible to avoid affecting the appearance of the finished box.
5. Stick sponge
After the die cutting plate is finished, in order to prevent the die cutting knife and the creasing line sticks to the paperboard during die cutting and creasing, ensure the paper is smoothly feeding during die cutting, and the elastic sponges should be pasted on both sides of the cutting line. The sponge is very important during die cutting, which directly affects the speed and quality of die cutting. Different die cutting machines should choose the die cutting sponge with different hardness,size and shape according to the die cutting speed and die cutting condition. 
According to the hardness of die cutting sponge, there are standard sponge, hard sponge and extra-hard sponge.According to the sticking position of die cutting sponge, it is necessary to choose different hardness of sponge. As shown in the following table.
Sponge specifications and pasting position.

Sponge hardness	Sponge width	Sponge height	Pasting position
Standard sponge 40°	7mm	9mm	Pasted in normal die cutting position
Hard sponge 55°	7mm	8mm	Pasted to the position of the connection dot on both sides of the die cutting knife or pasted to the normal die cutting position on the high speed die cutting machine
Extra-hard sponge 60°	7mm	7mm	Usually pasted to the narrow part of the position or on both sides of special tools such as square blade and zipper blade.

When the sponge is used during die cutting, it will be compressed and deformed. If the die cutting sponge is too close to the cutting line, the sponge will produce a lateral force when it is pressed, and it is easy to destroy the connecting  dot or pull the edge of the paper when cutting the line, which will affect the die cutting effect. If it is too far from the cutting knife, it will not prevent paperboard from sticking to the knife.The ideal distance between the die cutting sponge and the cutting line is between 1-2 mm.
Trial test cutting pad

After the die cutting plate is finished, the die cutting plate should be first installed on the die cutting machine for trial cutting. When the test cutting is done, the test-cut sample is partially normal, and when some parts can not be cut through, the plate is to be partially spread. The pad is glued to the bottom of the die cutting plate with 0.05mm thick pad paper to compensate the height of the die cutting blade. When there is still individual die cutting line after the partial pad is not transparent, the position pad should be carried out. The position pad is directly stuck to the bottom of the die cutting blade with a narrow pad paper to compensate the height of the cutting line.