Pocket folders, rigid boxes, displays, and packaging prototypes cut and creased straight from your file — no steel rule die, no tooling cost, no minimum quantity.
We cut on a flatbed digital cutting table. The sheet is held flat by vacuum while a computer-controlled head moves across it carrying whatever tool the job needs — a drag knife, an oscillating blade, a creasing wheel, a router bit, or a V-cut tool. The cut path comes directly from the vector artwork in your file.
Traditional die-cutting requires a physical die: a plywood board with steel rules bent into your shape, which costs hundreds of dollars and takes days to make. Digital cutting needs no die at all. Changing the shape means editing a vector path and pressing go.
An onboard camera reads register marks printed on the sheet and compensates for any stretch or skew that happened on press. That is how the cut lands exactly on the printed artwork even when paper has shifted slightly — critical for folders and packaging where a 1 mm error is visible.
| Operation | What it does |
|---|---|
| Through-cut | Cuts the material completely — any contour or outline |
| Kiss-cut | Cuts the face material only, leaving the liner intact for peel-off labels |
| Crease / score | Rolls a channel so board folds cleanly without cracking |
| Perforation | Tear-away strips, coupons, and response cards |
| V-groove | Angled cuts in thick board for sharp 90° folded corners on rigid boxes |
| Routing | Milling acrylic, aluminium composite, and thick foam board |
| Drilling | Clean round holes for hangers, binders, and eyelets |
| Braille / embossing | Tactile marking on accessibility signage |
Presentation folders are the job this equipment was made for. A folder needs a precise outline, crisp creases, glue tabs, business card slits, and often a shaped front flap — all of which used to require an expensive custom die. Now the shape is just a vector path, so a run of 25 folders costs the same per unit as a run of 250.
The usual production path: print the flat sheet digitally or on offset → laminate → add raised spot UV with JetVarnish 3D → cut and crease digitally → fold and glue. Roughly 3–5 business days end to end.
Because there is no die to pay for, packaging development stops being a gamble. You can hold a physical prototype of your box in your hands within a day or two, adjust the dimensions, and cut another — repeating until it is right, before committing to a production die.
Straight and reverse tuck folding cartons — the standard retail box for cosmetics, supplements, and food. Ships and stores flat.
Base and lid built from 2–3 mm greyboard, V-grooved for perfectly sharp corners, then wrapped in printed paper. Premium gifting and electronics.
Book-style hinged lid with concealed magnets. The highest-perceived-value option for luxury and subscription packaging.
Roll-end tuck-front and crash-lock corrugated mailers with tear strips — built for e-commerce unboxing.
Fitted corrugated or foam inserts that hold the product still in transit. Cut to the exact contour of what goes inside.
Counter units, shelf talkers, and floor displays in corrugated or foam board, with interlocking assembly and no glue.
| Digital cutting | Steel rule die | |
|---|---|---|
| Tooling cost | None | $300 – $1,500 per shape |
| Lead time for new shape | Hours | 3 – 10 business days |
| Minimum quantity | 1 | Typically 500+ |
| Design revisions | Free | New die each time |
| Speed at high volume | Slower per sheet | Much faster per sheet |
| Best for | Prototypes & short runs | Large production runs |
| Storage | Digital file | Physical die must be stored |
They are complements, not competitors. Prototype and short-run digitally; move to a steel rule die once the design is locked and the volume justifies it.
We need a vector file — Illustrator, PDF, or DXF — with the cut geometry on its own layers:
No dieline yet? Send us the finished dimensions and what has to go inside, and we will build the dieline for you and supply a folded blank sample to check before production.
Yes — that is one of the best uses for this equipment. One folder, one box, one display, cut from your file with no tooling charge at all.
Within about ±0.2 mm on registered printed sheets. The camera reads register marks on every sheet and compensates for paper stretch, so the cut stays aligned to the artwork.
Yes. Folders and cartons can be delivered flat for you to assemble, or folded and glued ready to use. Rigid boxes are wrapped and assembled by hand.
Usually, yes. Send a sample first so we can confirm thickness and tooling. There are limits on very hard or brittle materials.
Generally past a few thousand pieces of a locked-down design, where the faster per-sheet speed of a die press outweighs the tooling cost. Below that, digital cutting is almost always cheaper and far more flexible.
Yes — contour cutting follows any vector path you supply, including a clipping path traced around a product image for stickers, standees, or shaped cards.
Send us the dimensions, the material, and what it needs to hold. We will build the dieline, cut a physical sample, and quote the production run.
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