Special applications from Marbach. New in the portfolio: High-precision manual top knives.

Marbach is known in the market for providing individual solutions. So far, manual top knives have not been part of Marbach's portfolio. However, as customer requirements for high-precision manual top knives have become more and more demanding, Marbach has intensively dealt with this topic. The result is tools manufactured in a new production process which optimally meets customer requirements for more precision.

Manual top knives are special tools as they are used on hydraulic swing arm cutting machines, which are the most widely used die-cutting machines in Europe. They are used to die-cut materials such as foils, leather materials, felt, fleece or even foam materials. Target groups can be found in all areas ranging from the automotive, shoe, foam and textile industries to the plastics processing industry.

The conventional manual top knives available on the market are manufactured using a template. A steel rule is bent directly around a template. The results are often imprecise. Market demand for greater precision in such manual top knives has increased steadily in recent years. 

Michael Kiesel: "More and more customers have come to us seeking precise manual top knives. For this reason we have dealt intensively with this topic. The result is that we are incorporating an intermediate step in the production process: the manual top knife is not manufactured directly, but a CAD program is created first. Based on this, the manual top knife is then manufactured using our new production process. For our customers, this means tools with high precision, consistent quality and easy reproducibility for repeat runs. 

Another advantage is that a manual top knife is often just the preliminary stage to producing a tool for mass production. At Marbach a manual top knife for small series and test die-cutting is manufactured on the basis of the CAD data created. Only when this has been intensively tested, optimized and approved, are investments made in a multi-use production tool. This provides customers with efficient production tools optimized in advance as well as cost reductions."

First customers supplied with the new manual top knives have been impressed by the significantly higher precision of the tools. And the results: more precise and beautifully designed die-cutting material.