Japanese Die Cutter Machine Adjustment

[@youngwug]

Thomson machine(Korea name 도무송), In the 1980s, these Japanese-made machines mass-produced many boxes. Also, many operators suffered finger injuries. In the open state, if you take out the cut paper with your left hand and insert the paper with your right hand at the same time, if you make a mistake in the time difference, your fingers will be pressed and an accident will occur. Accidents did not decrease even with highly skilled operators. It is a very dangerous machine.

[@NearFarMedia]

Yeah, you gotta be careful with these machines for sure. These are cycled on the slower side to keep fingers safe. No accidents so far... The one I am working on in this video was purchased cheaply as it was apparently washed out with a hose after being decommissioned from its last factory after an 'incident'.... You may notice a bar along the top edge of the moving plate, that is designed to raise up as the machine closes to lift your hands up away from danger. That's the idea anyway... For some reason you can't buy these machines new..... Something about safety?.. But the newer machines can't cut through stock as thick as these ones can. We have fitted solid state contactors to these machines (the cycle rate meant normal contactors were wearing out every 12 months like clockwork), and this machine got a Mitsubishi VFD to soft-start the flywheel so they should keep running for a long time, hopefully with no injury...

[@TheDefpom]

It looks to me like the two square head bolts are for adjusting those blocks to create a gap like the shin is doing, so those are used for adjusting the alignment. You would loosen the large bolts and tighten the square ones to jack the block up, then re-tighten the main bolts.

[@NearFarMedia]

I thought so to at the start, but they are actually just slightly tapered pins with no thread in the hole at all, they are simply there for locating the blocks correctly. Tap them in after installing the shims and now the blocks are perfectly aligned, then tighten the 4 big bolts to keep it all together.

[@Microwave_Dave]

Thanks for posting another interesting video! Most 'How It's Made' style videos tend to gloss over the most important parts of the processes involved in making stuff, the production machinery and how it's maintained. May I ask what would cause a machine of that size to move out of alignment? Does it happen gradually over time and need to be re-shimmed often? Watching people operating those machines while wearing long sleeves is stressful. I assume it must be cold enough over there to warrant the risk.

[@NearFarMedia]

The movement is probably a number of things. General wear, the adjustments made when changing cutting plates and the die cutters, and regular earthquakes will gradually shift things around too, considering I was shimming in the order of 10th's of a mm. Short sleeves are the normal clothing used, not difficult or uncomfortable as the factory is kept warm and temperature controlled to make the plastic easier to cut especially in winter. (This day in the video was a down day in the factory during winter so it was cooler)

[@jaro6985]

Whats with the guy having to grab the handle as it opens up?

[@NearFarMedia]

It activates a mechanism that will allow the moving plate to either press against the die cutter or stop the cycle in the closed position just short of pressing. That way you can close the machine for adjustments and when not in use etc.