Finishing & Screen Printing

Mark Andy Introduces QCDC – Revolutionary Die Cutting Technology

Friday 31. August 2012 - New levels of die cutting productivity to be showcased at Labelexpo Americas 2012

Mark Andy has spent the past few years re-focusing their efforts to further improve converter productivity and efficiency. After a great deal of success with the award-wining Performance Series printing platform, the company has turned its focus to the next big bottleneck in flexo print production, die cutting. Mark Andy is excited to unveil its latest die-cutting innovation, QCDC – Quick Change Die Cut converting platform.
QCDC is a completely new design in die-cutting technology that promises to drive extreme efficiency from faster die set-up and change over to precision cut accuracy to high speed matrix stripping. Upon installation, converters will immediately see productivity improvements in quantifiable job changeover and set up times, as well as a significant savings in material waste.
Mark Andy R&D teams have analyzed the various processes of the cumbersome and lengthy work flow of current die cutting technology. With QCDC, operators will be able to reduce setups by 60% through its effortless die cassette workflow, open guarding system, simple matrix web path, and superior ergonomics.
Available in a single- or dual-die station configuration, the QCDC allows for dies to be quickly loaded, automatically registered with servo technology, and running full production in a fraction of the time. Die exchange is simple with the quick change cart, specifically designed for the Performance Series platform. The station’s design allows for accurate loading of dies either off-line during job changeover (single die station) or in a second station while the press is running a job (dual die station), further enhancing production efficiencies for the converter.
In addition to these benefits, QCDC will aid considerably in waste savings. The unique design offers trouble free matrix stripping and winding to reduce web breaks, as well as enabling customers to easily strip difficult die shapes. QCDC can easily adapt older Mark Andy dies as well as most dies from other press manufacturers. The unique adaption design provides rigid mounting of narrower adapted dies, providing more consistent die quality than ever previously achieved with adapted tooling.
QCDC technology will be demonstrated on both the Performance Series P5 and P7 models on the Mark Andy stand (#319) at Labelexpo Americas 2012