We now have the punch that was made by Ontario Die.

The punch consists of two pieces. The first is a punch that cuts about half of the holes in alternate rows. ( There is black foam rubber placed between the rows of punches.)

The second punch ( mounted on the same steel plate) uses the four corner previously punched holes to align the half stamped fiber material. The second punch cuts the remaining holes and the perimeter. You can see the perimeter cutting ridge on the following picture.

Some of the details of the second punch can be seen in the following picture. In particular, the alignment pin for the corner hole can be seen, as well as more detail of the perimeter cutting surface.

Present status

We have measured many of the fiber pieces produced by the punch. We have seen that a considerable fraction have misalignment of the two punching operations. We believe that this comes about as the operator moves the half punched fiber material to the second punch and trys to align the material on the four pins. With the relatively weak fiber material, it is possible to stretch the fibers, distort the material, and mispunch the fibers on the second punch. We have been talking to Mr. Al Fiddler, who did the design. Mr. Fiddler has several ideas. We are going to add a matrix of alignment pins, instead of just four. He is also going to constuct a transfer plate for moving the first punched fiber material.