JPS61182724A - Label punching die and manufacture thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To readily, quickly, and automatically manufacture a label punching die by performing electric discharge machining with matrix material on which grooves are engraved as the contour of a pattern and a die forming material capable of being hardened by quenching opposed to each other. CONSTITUTION:Concave grooves 18 are engraved on the surface of a matrix plate 17 having high conductivity and workability with the cutting tool 14 of an NC milling machine driven as the contour of a pattern read by a digitizer 11. With the matrix plate opposed to a die forming plate having high conductivity and capability of being quenched by the heat of high temperature generated during the electric discharge machining, an electric discharge machining is performed with them used as electrodes to form protruding lines making up for the concave grooves 18 on the surface of the die forming plate making a desired pattern punching die. The die is quenched during the electric discharge machining resulting in the improvement of the wear and abrasion resistance and the corrosion resistance. In addition, almost all the manufacturing process can be automated, and the punching dies for complicated and various pattern labels can be readily and quickly manufactured.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a label punching die for punching out a label formed on the surface of a thin sheet along a predetermined pattern, and a method for manufacturing the same.

[Prior Art] A label punching die, for example, a label that is releasably adhered to a backing paper and is punched out in advance along the outline of a predetermined pattern so that the label can be easily peeled off from the backing paper during use. The punching blades used for this purpose are manufactured each time according to a predetermined pattern that varies depending on the label.

Since the shapes of such labels are extremely diverse depending on the user's requests, the blade dies used to punch them must also be produced in a wide variety of small quantities. Applying a mass-produced method is practically impossible due to cost and other considerations. For this reason, in the past, they were manufactured by manually bending highly flexible belt-shaped steel plates (spring steel) into individual patterns.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, the above method requires a high degree of skill, and processing becomes extremely difficult, especially as the label pattern becomes more complex. In particular, when there is a seam in the pattern in the form of the blade, discontinuous portions occur at the cutting edge, which inevitably results in incomplete label punching.

Furthermore, in order to effectively punch out thin, flexible films, etc., the cutting edge needs to be sharp, and it is desirable to have minute irregularities, but processing of such a cutting edge is extremely complicated. And difficult. Furthermore, even once such a cutting edge is formed, steel strips are usually used without being hardened for ease of processing, so the cutting edge lacks wear resistance and corrosion resistance, resulting in wear and tear during one operation. This may cause damage or chipping, resulting in uneven blade contact. For this reason, it is often necessary to replace the punching die or repair the cutting table during use, which significantly reduces work efficiency.

In order to overcome these drawbacks, it has been previously proposed to apply photoetching techniques to the manufacturing of punching dies, in which photoresist is applied to the surface of the die forming material along the shape of the desired pattern. Attempts have also been made to form a punching die by applying etching on top and removing other parts through an etching process. However, with this method, the etching progresses laterally directly below the photoresist, i.e. in the area close to the cutting edge of the die being formed, making the cutting edge easily chipped. Cuts occur in the etching method, making it impossible to obtain a continuous blade shape.Furthermore, in the etching method, the etched blade edge lacks sharpness, so it lacks sharpness, especially when die-cutting thin films and the like. Attempts have been made to achieve this by combining a plurality of etching processes, but this operation is extremely complicated and, moreover, does not provide a sufficient effect in practice.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The purpose of the present invention is to eliminate the drawbacks of the prior art, to be able to punch out various and complex patterns always accurately and completely, and to improve the sharpness and durability of the cutting edge. To provide a label punching die with excellent properties.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing a label punching die, which allows the label punching die to be manufactured very easily and automatically.

The object of the present invention is to provide a label punching die for punching out a label formed on the surface of a thin sheet along a predetermined pattern, and a matrix material having grooves carved along the outline of the pattern. A die forming material that can be hardened by quenching is provided with a blade shape that follows the outline of the pattern that is formed integrally and completely continuously on the surface of the die forming material by performing electric discharge machining while facing each other. This is achieved by a label punching die characterized by:

The label punching die of the present invention is used in a method for manufacturing a label punching die for punching out a label formed on the surface of a thin sheet along a predetermined pattern. A groove portion having a shape according to the outline of the pattern is carved, and the surface of the matrix material on which the groove portion is carved is opposed to the surface of the conductive die-forming material that can be hardened by quenching, on which the blade is to be formed. Using these materials as electrodes, electrical discharge machining is performed between the surfaces facing each other, whereby the die forming material is integrally and completely continuously aligned with the contour line of the pattern on the surface where the blade shape is to be formed. The label punching die is easily and automatically manufactured by the method for manufacturing the label punching die, which is characterized in that a blade shape is formed.

[Function] The label punching die according to the present invention is produced by performing electric discharge machining on a matrix material in which grooves have been carved along the outline of the label pattern while facing the die forming material. Since it is obtained by integrally forming a die, the die edge has a shape that follows the outline of the desired pattern of the label.

In addition, since the blade shape is formed integrally on the surface of the die forming material by the electrical discharge machining, no matter how complex the pattern, the blade shape is always formed accurately and completely continuously. There are no seams on the cutting edge of the blade, as in the case of manual work.
In addition, there are no defects such as those that are likely to occur in the case of etching.

Furthermore, since the die forming material is made of a material that can be hardened by quenching, the heating during electrical discharge machining produces a quenching effect, particularly at the cutting edge, resulting in excellent hardness, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, etc. In addition, the impact energy applied during electrical discharge machining forms minute irregularities on the cutting edge, which, combined with the hardening, provides excellent cutting quality.

Due to these properties of the cutting edge, it can be effectively applied to punching label paper, such as thin plastic sheets or metal sheets and coated paper, which are difficult or impossible to punch with conventional dies. Further, the label punching die of the present invention is manufactured by engraving a pattern on a matrix material along the outline and electrical discharge machining between the matrix material and the die forming material. No matter how complex the pattern is, engraving can be easily carried out using ordinary cutting means such as a milling machine and following the outline of the desired pattern with sufficient precision.

Then, by the subsequent electrical discharge machining, a blade shape is formed on the surface of the die forming material in a manner that is complementary to the carved contour line. As can be seen, the engraving and electrical discharge machining steps do not require any special skill since they are applied to the formation of punching dies, and can be easily carried out using conventional equipment.

[Example] Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with respect to manufacturing a label punching die shown in the drawings.

In FIG. 1, a label 3 with a predetermined pattern (in the illustrated example, a thick English letter M) is printed on a thin label film 2 that is adhered to the surface of a mount 1 that has been subjected to a peeling process. The label 3 is punched out in advance by a punching die along its contour line 4 so that the label 3 can be easily peeled off from the mount 1 while leaving the other part (dregs) 5 of the film 2 behind.

A punching die used for this purpose has a shape corresponding to the outline 4 of the label 3, for example, as shown in FIG. It is clear that it is extremely difficult to manually bend and bend steel strips as in the past.

Further, the cutting edge 7 of the punching die 6 is preferably sharp and has minute irregularities, but processing of such a cutting edge is extremely complicated and difficult by conventional manual or etching methods. In addition, in order to improve the hardness, wear resistance, etc. of the cutting edge, it is preferable to selectively harden only the cutting edge 7, but such work also has to be done as an additional step in conventional methods. I had to.

One embodiment of the present invention that can extremely easily manufacture such a label punching die is shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 below.
The figure will be further explained.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a system in which a matrix for a label punching die used in the method of the present invention is formed by machining on a matrix material surface.

This system includes a digitizer 11 or an image scanner that reads a predetermined label pattern, processes the image output from the digitizer 11, and outputs a signal that drives a cutting tool of a machine tool along a trajectory according to the pattern. a processing device 12, an X-Y plotter 1 for checking whether the output signal gives a trajectory according to the pattern;
3 and a cutting tool 1 driven by the output signal.
It consists of NG milling fi15 equipped with 4. The processing device 12 further includes an external storage device 1B that stores label patterns read from the digitizer 11 each time.
is provided.

When the digitizer 11 magnetically recognizes a desired pattern, it converts it into an electrical image signal and inputs it to the processing device 12 . The processing device 12 performs interpolation processing using an appropriate function on this input signal, and then adds the processed pattern image signal to the -HX-Y plotter 13 to operate the plotter.
It is confirmed by the drawing locus of the plotter 13 whether the image output according to the desired pattern is obtained.

If this drawing locus is in accordance with the pattern, the image information about the pattern is output to the NC milling machine 15 together with various cutting conditions (groove depth, angle, etc.), the cutting pie) 14 is driven, and the master mold is A concave groove 18 corresponding to, for example, pattern "M" shown in the first figure is carved into the plate surface of the material 17 at a predetermined depth and cutting angle along the locus according to the pattern. The matrix material 17 is suitably selected from any material such as copper, graphite, tungsten, and alloys thereof, which has good conductivity suitable for use as one electrode during electrical discharge machining and is easy to process with the cutting pipe 14. selected.

Here, no matter how diverse and complex the label pattern is, the digitizer 11 reads it and the cutting tool 14 is driven in a trajectory corresponding to the pattern, so that the plate surface of the matrix material 17 is A concave groove 18 having a shape complementary to the blade shape of a punching die to be formed later is carved.

Since a cutting accuracy of about LOgm can be easily obtained with a normal NC milling machine, the groove 18 thus obtained has sufficient accuracy as a matrix for the punching die 6.

Next, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a mode in which a desired punching die 6 is formed by electric discharge machining based on the recess 18 formed on the mother mold material 17 side in this way. The die forming surface of the die forming material 19 is opposed to the plate surface of the matrix material 17 on the side where the groove 18 is formed, with a predetermined gap G interposed therebetween.

Here, the die forming material is selected from steel and alloy steel, which have conductivity suitable for use as one electrode during electrical discharge machining, and which can be quenched and hardened by high heat during electrical discharge machining. Examples of such materials include carbon steel such as 45C. The matrix material 17 and the die forming material 19 are each connected as a discharge electrode into a pulse current supply circuit of the discharge machining a20.

In this state, when a pulsed voltage is applied between the matrix material 17 and the die forming material 19 as both electrodes and the gap G between them is adjusted to an appropriate initial value, a pulsed voltage is applied through the gap between the two electrodes. Discharge begins due to the current.

(7) The plate surface of the die forming material 19 on the side facing the matrix material 17 is gradually melted and removed by the discharge energy.

Here, the amount of melting is small in the large part of the discharge gap facing the groove 18 of the matrix material 17, and large in other parts, so that as the discharge progresses, the plate surface of the die forming material 19 has the groove A protrusion having a shape complementary to 18 is formed, and at the end of processing, a punching die 6 (for example, an M-shaped blade shown in the second figure) in a desired pattern is integrally formed on the surface of the material plate.

Although the case where one label punching die 6 is obtained has been described here, if a plurality of labels exist consecutively on the film sheet on the mount, a plurality of labels may be punched on the matrix material side correspondingly. It is also possible to arrange groove patterns in parallel. In this case, image output may be repeated and applied to the cutting tool 14 based on image information from the storage device 16 of the processing device 12 that has stored the image of the pattern 3.

EXPERIMENTAL EXAMPLE The present invention will be further explained below using a more specific experimental example.

A rectangular punching die having a V-shaped cross-sectional cutting edge with a cutting edge angle of 60 degrees and a cutting height of 0.5 mm for punching out labels with a square pattern of 40 am x 40 mm was manufactured according to the method of the present invention.

The pattern of the label is read with a digitizer and corrected with an X-Y plotter, and then outputted to an NC milling machine along with data such as the depth and angle of the cutting groove corresponding to the shape of the punching die. x 50 x 5
A rectangular pattern of grooves was carved into the plate surface of a copper plate for electrodes of mm in diameter. The groove depth was 0.5III+ and the cutting edge angle was Bθ''.

Next, the milled matrix material having the grooves in the rectangular pattern is faced with a 45C steel plate as a die forming material, and subjected to electric discharge machining 41! (manufactured by Bengami Japax: D?-45) were connected as discharge electrodes to a power supply circuit, and electrical discharge machining was performed. Pulse conditions were set to ON: 15 according to the specifications of the processing machine.
OFF: 6, IP (peak current value) 6 (notch value), and rough machining was performed while supplying machining oil to the machining gap at a pressure of 0.3 kg/cm2. A punching die having a height of 0.55 cm and an angle of 60° was formed on the plate surface according to the pattern described above. Next, the pulse conditions were set to ON: 13, OFF: 6. IP:5 as 1
After finishing for 0 minutes, the resulting punching die had a sharp cutting edge with a completely continuous and uniform cutting height along the entire circumference of the pattern, and the cutting edge had minute irregularities. had been formed.

When this punching blade was used to punch out a 25 pm-thick polyester film label adhered to a 150 pm-thick silicone-treated release paper according to the pattern, the label was cut out with the release paper remaining. It was completely punched out, and almost no damage or wear was observed on the cutting edge even after approximately 200,000 continuous uses.

[Effects of the Invention] (1) In the present invention, the cutting edge of the label punching die is formed from a concave groove carved in the matrix material as a protrusion having a complementary shape to the die forming material by electrical discharge machining. Therefore, the cutting edge of the die is formed continuously according to the desired pattern and there are no seams or missing parts, so that the label can always be completely punched out.

(2) Also, since a hardenable material is used as the die forming material, the hardness of the cutting edge increases due to the heat of fusion during electrical discharge machining, making it difficult to effectively cut out labels made of coated paper or metal film. You can also do it. moreover,
The hardening at this time also improves the abrasion resistance, corrosion resistance, etc., improves the durability of the label punching die, and significantly reduces maintenance work such as replacement and re-polishing. The above-mentioned hardening effect can be obtained as so-called oil-immersion hardening by supplying machining oil during electrical discharge machining.

(3) Furthermore, minute irregularities are formed on the cutting edge due to the impact energy during electrical discharge machining, which creates a so-called sharpening effect on the cutting edge, making it easy to cut thin film labels, etc. be able to.

(0 Furthermore, in the present invention, the label punching die is formed in a complimentary shape by electric discharge machining from the concave groove carved in the matrix material side along the desired pattern to the die forming material side. However, since the concave grooves can be easily cut using, for example, an NC milling machine, even if label patterns become more complex and diversified, it is possible to easily manufacture a label punching die of a desired shape. I can do it.

(5) The cutting edge of the rough punching die must be of uniform height and sufficiently sharp, but the shape of the cutting edge can be easily changed by appropriately setting the cutting depth, angle, etc. of the cutting tool. Moreover, it can be formed with sufficient precision.

In addition, the subsequent electrical discharge machining process can be easily performed without any special skill required, as in the case of forming the matrix, by using a normal electrical discharge machine and appropriately setting the electrical discharge machining conditions. can.

(6) In the present invention, if the predetermined pattern of the label is read with a digitizer and the output is processed to create a drawing to drive a cutting tool such as an NC milling machine, the label can be Almost all processes of manufacturing the punching die 6 are completely automated, and label punching dies having a wide variety of complicated patterns can be manufactured extremely easily and quickly.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a label pattern, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a punching die for punching out the pattern, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a system for carrying out one step of the method of the present invention. The schematic diagram, FIG. 4, is an explanatory diagram showing another step of the method of the present invention. In the diagram: l... mount 3... label 4... contour line 6... punching diamond... cutting edge
11... Digitizer 13... X-Y plotter 14... Cutting tool 15... NC milling machine 17... Mother mold forming material 18... Concave groove
19...Die forming material 20...Electric discharge machine

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) In a label punching die for punching out a label formed on the surface of a thin sheet along a predetermined pattern, it can be hardened by hardening with a matrix material in which grooves are carved along the outline of the pattern. and a die forming material facing each other and performing electric discharge machining to form a blade shape that follows the outline of the pattern, which is formed integrally and completely continuously on the surface of the die forming material. The label punching die. (2) In a method for manufacturing a label punching die for punching out a label formed on the surface of a thin sheet along a predetermined pattern, the surface of the conductive matrix material is shaped in accordance with the outline of the pattern. The groove side of the matrix material is engraved, and the engraved surface of the groove portion of the matrix material is opposed to the surface of the conductive die-forming material that is hardenable by quenching where the blade is to be formed, and these two materials are respectively used as electrodes. Electrical discharge machining is performed between mutually opposing surfaces, thereby forming a blade shape that follows the outline of the pattern integrally and completely continuously on the surface of the die forming material where the blade shape is to be formed. A method for manufacturing the label punching die. (3) The shape of the outline of the pattern formed on the surface of the thin sheet is read, the read information is processed into a drawing, and the processing output is used to drive the cutting means of the machine tool to form the pattern on the surface of the matrix material. The method for manufacturing a label punching die according to claim 2, which includes carving a groove portion having a shape that follows the outline of the pattern.