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The Main Processes for Making Wood Cutting Dies

 

If you’re new to die-cutting and want to start your own die shop and die-making business, but aren’t particularly familiar with the die-making process. Or if you already own a die-cutting shop and business, but your employees lack familiarity with the production workflow and require foundational knowledge. This article will primarily outline the main processes for wood dies making and the essential processing equipment required.

Traditional wooden cutting dies are primarily made by hand. This method demands extremely high skill from the die-maker, making it nearly impossible for new-starter to operate. The main process is as follows:

  1. Design the die lines on paper, then transfer the design onto the wood die board. Mark the positioning lines for slots with a pen.
  2. Use a hand-held wire saw or a table type electric wire saw to cut slots into the wood die board according to the marked positioning lines.
  3. Bend the die cutting blades into shape using a manual bending machine based on the lines drawn on the paper.
  4. Install the bent steel rules onto the die board using a die-setting hammer. Then the whole pieces of wood cutting die done.

Due to the entirely manual process, meticulous attention is required for both marking lines precision and slotting accuracy.

Manually die-making demands exceptionally high skill from the maker.  Furthermore, its low precision has rendered this method obsolete.

die-making by hand die-making manually

Below, we focus on modern CNC equipment-based die-making techniques. AOLANG Laser is a professional provider of wood-based die-making equipment, offering a full range of tools including laser die cutting machines, fully automatic steel rule bending machines, and manual bending tools.

The modern die-making process assisted by CNC equipment is as follows:

  1. Design the slotting positioning lines and slots for the die template using professional software like AutoCAD or CorelDRAW based on your required die-cut product. Export the finalized design as a DXF file, as both the laser die-cutting machine and automatic bending machine require this file for CNC processing.
  2. Import your DXF file into the AOLANG LASER laser die-cutting machine. Useyour laser die cutting machine to slot 15mm/18mm thick plywood die boards.
  3. Import your design drawings into the automatic steel rule bending machine. Load coiled steel rules or creasing rules into the machine, which precisely bends the blades into the shapes specified inyour design drawings.
  4. Weld the front and ends joint of the blades using a TIG or laser welder. Then, use a die-setting hammer to install the finished steel rules and creasing rules into the slots of the wood die board.
  5. Proceed with measurements and do quality inspection. A qualified wood die board is now completed.

AOLANG LASER has over 2000 machine users. We visited a local die shop and created a video demonstrating how they use our laser CNC equipment to produce a complete wooden die board. Processes video as below:

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