Paper & Board: Techniques & Processes

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Specialist Techniques

The use of production aids helps the designer and manufacturer produce accurate and high-quality materials and products every time.

The use of production aids

The use of production aids helps the designer and manufacturer produce accurate and high-quality materials and products every time.
Templates and CAD/CAM can allow for accurate shape-cutting or continuous production that has consistent patterns e.g. gift wrapper based products.

Tools, equipment and processes

Tools and equipment have been invented to speed up the process of producing paper-based products and allow for products to be produced identically.
Production aids such as rulers and self-cutting printers eliminate errors and increase the quality of paper and board based production.

$Measuring$

Measuring

Rulers can be on the margins of the cutting area to help accurately cut paper and boards.
Plotting machines can remember registration marks which then enable for fast and accurate cutting.
Protractors and dividers can be used to measure angles and reproduce lines.
Set squares can help to make a paper square or to create two two-dimensional shapes.

Scoring and cutting

Scoring the paper and board can be done using creasing tools.
Laser cutters or die cutter can create perforated edges for accurate and easy folding.
Packaging benefits from this as it is a slow process to accurately produce crease lines every time.

Scoring and cutting cont.

Clean cutting of paper and boards can be done through craft knives and paper trimmers. They offer speed and precision that many end users can benefit from.
Craft knives are versatile and can produce many different types of creases and cuts.
However, die cutters offer better speed and precision but have high set up costs and tooling costs.

Commercial Processes

Commercial processes offer companies a distinct advantage as they can produce items and products quickly and accurately whilst also reducing unit costs in the long run.

Commercial processes

Commercial processes offer companies a distinct advantage as they can produce items and products quickly and accurately whilst also reducing unit costs in the long run.
Unit costs are the cost of producing a single item.

Offset lithography

This is a process where ink is applied usually in four or more stages.
Offset lithography applies the colour in four stages of colour.
It applies dots in each area that requires it eventually forming the picture or graphic that is intended to print.

Offset lithography cont.

Registration marks are produced at the bottom of the piece where colour testing and accuracy of prints can enable high-quality prints every time.
Due to the similar processes used, fabric printing uses near enough identical processes when producing a large amount of fabric based prints.

Colours

The colours used in offset lithography are CMYK:
- C stands for cyan (blue).
- M stands for magenta (pink/purple palette).
- Y stands for yellow.
- K stands for key which (refers to black).

Die cutting

Die cutting is a technique that allows for paper to be cut and creased accurately in large amounts.
Using sharp blades that are put into a base material such as ply allow for an evenly distributed and heavy cut which can cut through a material perforate at the same time.
Die cutting uses a stamping motion to evenly cut, crease and perforate.