Hartford Cutter and Creaser.
Cutting and creasing for folding boxes can be done successfully on platen printing presses of the John Thompson and Hartford type, provided that a printing press of this type be fitted with a steel platen plate, and provided also that the inking rollers of the press be removed. The steel platen plate is removable, and is held to the platen of the press by means of counter-sunk screws. When printing is to be done on the press the platen plate is taken off.
The National Machine Company, of Hartford, Conn., and John Thompson Press Company, of New York City, both manufacture standard cutting and creasing presses which are built especially for this work. These presses, which are not designed for printing purposes, are fitted with removable, steel platen plates, and by having a number of these platen plates, the folding box maker can save the makeready, or “female dies” on the plates, and may keep them stored away for future orders on the same kind of work. In saving such “female dies” on the platen plates, however, it would also be essential to save the forms containing the steel cutting and creasing dies so that all would perfectly register when the dies and plates are again put on the presses.
MAKING READY A STEEL CUTTING AND CREASING DIE
This applies to making ready the die on a regular Hartford or John Thomson cutter and creaser, and as mentioned before, the form may have more than one duplicate of the same die, if desired. For example, the form may contain say eight complete cutting and creasing dies, arranged together for cutting eight small cartons from a single sheet of stock.
First, put on the steel platen plate, and see that it is free from all old makeready material. Second, take a sheet of chip-board, news-board or straw-board, and cut it nearly the full size of the platen plate. Then with LePage glue carefully spread all over one side of the sheet of box-board, apply the sheet of box-board to the surface of the platen plate.
John Thomson Cutter and Creaser.
Third, place the chase containing the die, or series of dies, on the press. Fourth, with a small printer’s hand inking roller and printers’ black ink, apply the ink to all creasing rules in the form. Fifth, take a sheet of the stock which is to be cut and creased, and by slowly turning the fly-wheels of the press, take an impression of the form on this sheet of stock. If all of the cutting rules cut through the stock clearly, the impression is right. If the cutting rules do not cut sharply, more impression will be required, and this is obtained by moving the slides holding the throw-off bar up one or two notches. Do not move the slides up more than one notch at one time, and keep moving them, after taking additional impressions on blank sheets of stock until finally the impression is rightly adjusted.