--- title: How to Choose the Right Automatic Paper Hole Cleaning Machine for Your Production Line date: 2026-09-17T09:38:19Z modified: 2026-09-29T08:05:52Z permalink: "https://www.qdblanking.com/blog/how-to-choose-automatic-paper-hole-cleaning-machine/" type: post status: publish excerpt: "" wpid: 437 categories: - Blog featured_image: "https://www.qdblanking.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/85a9fe2f9ada6e90c40ec19312dc9ead.webp" featured_image_alt: how to choose an automatic paper hole cleaning machine timestamp: 2026-09-29T08:05:52Z tags: - Blog --- The die cutter has run. The stripping station has cleared the waste from the sheet. The blanker has separated the finished pieces. The plug is still sitting in the aperture the die left behind: a hang tag hole, a carton panel, a cosmetic box lid that cannot ship until somebody deals with it. Every other station has finished. Search for how to choose [automatic paper hole cleaning machine](https://www.qdblanking.com/wp-content/uploads/wp-mfa-exports/post/what-is-automatic-paper-hole-cleaning-machine.md) and the results resolve the phrase as an office hole punch: number of holes, sheet capacity, ease of use. This page is written for the other reader, the one comparing two quotations for a production line and deciding before they sign. Four processes get mixed up here. Punching and drilling make a hole. Stripping removes sheet-scale waste from around the printed pieces. Blanking separates finished pieces. Hole cleaning clears the plug left behind inside an aperture the die has already cut. ![hole cleaning machine vs drilling machine for die-cut paperboard](https://www.qdblanking.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image-21.png) ## Automatic paper hole cleaning machine buying guide: the job and the four look-alikes Hole cleaning is the step that empties the aperture. In the trade the leftover plug has its own name: the slug, the material left inside a cut shape that still has to leave the plant. The job travels under several names inside the same quotation, which is where comparing two quotes starts to go wrong. Inner hole cleaning, slug removal, and de-slugging are the same operation. The three neighbours are easy to tell apart by what each one acts on. Blanking separates the finished pieces, and it is not another word for stripping. Neither blanking nor stripping will clear the plug left inside a die-cut aperture. The separation is published: a technical article from the Flexographic Technical Association states it directly. Everything below is the purchase decision and nothing else: how to specify the machine, compare two quotations on the same terms, and run a trial that returns a yes or a no. If a supplier cannot tell you which of the four jobs their machine performs, that answer is worth having early. ## Dedicated cleaner or integrated cleaning: the decision that comes before the specification sheet ![dedicated cleaner vs integrated automatic paper hole cleaning machine](https://www.qdblanking.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image-20.png) The first purchase question is not a number. It is where the cleaning happens. One architecture is a machine whose only job is to clear apertures. It sits after the die cutter, takes the pile as it comes, and does nothing else. The published page for the [HTQK-720 inner hole cleaning machine](https://www.qdblanking.com/product/htqk-720-inner-hole-cleaning-machine/) describes that approach: a pneumatic cleaner built as standalone auxiliary equipment, with its own footprint, its own power supply, and its own place in the workflow. The other architecture moves the same job inside a [waste-stripping machine](https://www.qdblanking.com/product/htqf-1080-series-automatic-stripping-machine/), so one pass strips the sheet and clears the apertures. The [HTQF-1080Q automatic stripping machine](https://www.qdblanking.com/product/htqf-1080q-automatic-stripping-machine/) is published with inner-hole cleaning built in. The tradeoff comes down to which constraint you would rather live with, not which machine is built better. An integrated machine adds no extra handling step between stripping and cleaning, and there is one machine to install, power, and maintain; in exchange, cleaning inherits that machine’s cycle rate, its format ceiling, and its stack height. A dedicated cleaner keeps the cleaning step independent of whatever the stripping machine is doing, at the price of two machines on the floor: two setups, two footprints, two things to keep running. That is a line-design decision, and it is easier to make before the specification sheet is opened. Work out where the pile goes after the die cutter, who handles it, and which station sets the pace; the architecture usually follows. One more member of the family belongs in the same enquiry when your pile is thin: QIANDING also publishes the [HTQF-1080QJ](https://www.qdblanking.com/product/htqf-1080qj-automatic-stripping-machine/), which shares the 1080Q’s format and aperture with a 60 mm stack instead of 70 mm. ## Automatic hole cleaning machine specifications Start with the order, because it decides what is worth comparing. MK Masterwork Group’s selection framework for industrial die cutters puts the substrate and the maximum format first, the process need including stripping second, and only then sustainable speed, changeover time, tooling compatibility, and downstream integration. Format decides whether a machine is in the running; speed decides nothing if it is not. Five numbers settle the rest. - Minimum cleaning diameter. The smallest aperture the machine will clear. It decides whether the machine can do your job, and a quotation can quietly omit it. - Format range. Maximum format and minimum product size. A machine can be too large for small tag work as easily as too small for a large carton. - Product and stack height. What the machine takes in one pass, and whether that matches your existing pile. - Cycle rate. Read against the station upstream of the cleaner. A low cycle rate does not fail; it moves the bottleneck. - Tooling. What pushes the plug out, and what happens between one format and the next. Where the waste goes is the sixth question, and none of the three publishes an answer. Ask it in writing. | Variable | HTQK-720 (dedicated) | HTQF-1080Q (integrated) | HTQF-800Q (integrated) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Architecture | Dedicated pneumatic cleaner, standalone | Cleaning built into a stripping machine | Cleaning built into a stripping machine | | Maximum format | 720×500 mm | 1080×780 mm | 800×620 mm | | Minimum product size | 50×50 mm | not published | not published | | Product / stack height | 30–100 mm | 70 mm | 80 mm | | Minimum cleaning diameter | not published | 10 mm | 30 mm | | Cycle rate | 8–20 /min | 2 /min | 1–3 /min | | Maximum pressure | not published | 70 bar | 70 bar | | Air consumption | 3 L/min | not published | not published | | Power | 220/380 V, 0.5 kW | 380 V 50 Hz, 9 kW | 380 V 50 Hz, 4.5 kW | | Footprint | 800×650×1500 mm | 1900×2100×2000 mm | 1500×1700×1900 mm | | Net weight | 200 kg | 3350 / 4500 kg | 1900 kg | | Control system | not published | Panasonic PLC, Weinview 10.4″ touchscreen | not published | | Tooling change | not published | Needles quick to change | Needles/rods quick to change | | Waste evacuation path | not published | not published | not published | | Published applications | Cigarette packs, cosmetic boxes, hang tags | Tags, labels, cosmetic packaging | Labels, paper cups, medicine boxes | Read the gaps as carefully as the figures. QIANDING publishes a minimum cleaning diameter for both integrated models: 10 mm on the HTQF-1080Q, and 30 mm on the [HTQF-800Q automatic stripping machine](https://www.qdblanking.com/product/htqf-800q-automatic-stripping-machine/). Neither figure belongs to the dedicated HTQK-720, and neither should be assumed for it. Tooling shows the same asymmetry. The published pages for the stripping machines state that needles and rods change quickly between formats. Nothing is published about how tooling is changed on the dedicated machine. That gap sits in the documentation, and it is answerable. Ask for the figure. ## HTQK-720 specifications: the number the page does not give you The published set for HTQK-720 is otherwise complete enough to shortlist on: product size from 50×50 mm to 720×500 mm, product height 30–100 mm, 8–20 cycles per minute, 3 L/min air consumption, 220/380 V at 0.5 kW, an 800×650×1500 mm footprint, and a net weight of 200 kg. What the page does not state is the minimum cleaning diameter. That omission is what this purchase turns on: aperture size decides which of your products the machine can touch. Put the question in writing, with the smallest aperture you run, and ask for the figure that matches your board. QIANDING publishes it for the integrated models; for the dedicated cleaner the answer has to come from the current technical documentation. Confirm the figures above against that sheet before you order, and treat anything a quotation omits as unanswered rather than known. ![HTQK-720 inner hole cleaning machine](https://qdblanking.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/720-inner.jpg) QIANDING MACHINERY HTQK-720 Inner Hole Cleaning Machine Dedicated pneumatic hole cleaning machine for removing waste plugs from die-cut paperboard products while keeping the cleaning step independent from stripping. Product size: 50 × 50 to 720 × 500 mm Stack height: 30–100 mm Working speed: 8–20 cycles/min Air consumption: 3 L/min [ View Product ](https://www.qdblanking.com/product/htqk-720-inner-hole-cleaning-machine/) ## Single head or multi head: reading tooling language in a quote Head and station counts describe how many working stations are built into a die cutter or a press. Where the trade counts them, it renders the result as dual-unit or dual-station, and it is counting press architecture rather than a way to clear apertures. We have not found the term applied as a documented choice for hole cleaning equipment, and this machine class does not present one. So the quotation question worth asking is about the tooling: what it is, what it performs, and how long it takes to change. The published tooling statements for the stripping machines cover needle and rod changes between formats; nothing is published for the dedicated cleaner. Put the missing half in the request: what performs the clean-out, is the tooling cut for the aperture or set by hand, how is it changed, and what has to be done between one format and the next. ## The RFQ: a sheet a supplier can answer without a second round A complete request for quotation removes a round of email, and its order should follow the order the decision is made in. Substrate first. - Substrate. Board type, grammage, coated or uncoated, printed or unprinted, laminated or not. Two sheets of the same size behave differently through a machine if one is coated folding carton board and the other is litho-laminated corrugated. - Apertures. The smallest aperture you need cleared, in millimetres, and the largest. A marked sample saves a paragraph of description. - Format range. The biggest sheet you run and the smallest finished piece. Both bounds matter, and a supplier can only check them if you give both. - Where it sits. Whether cleaning has to happen in the same pass as stripping or can stand alone, and whether the cleaner sits in line with an existing die cutter. - Stack. Product or pile height as you run it today. - Rate. The cycle rate you need, and the cycle rate of the station upstream of the cleaner. Give both numbers; a supplier can then tell you where the bottleneck lands instead of leaving you to find out. - Tooling. What performs the clean-out, how it is specified for a given aperture, and how it is changed between formats. - Waste path. Where the plug goes once it leaves the board, what collects it, and whether that suits your plant. - Sample. Your own board, with your own aperture pattern, for a trial. Close with the two questions that catch an incomplete quotation: which of the figures above is not published, and what does the current technical sheet say. If the reply does not contain a minimum cleaning diameter, the quotation is missing the number that decides the purchase. ## The trial: what to verify on your own board A trial that runs the supplier’s sample board tells you less than one that runs yours. Send your own board, printed the way you print it, and a layout with the smallest aperture in the position where it actually falls. Then watch four things. - Whether the aperture clears at all. If the smallest aperture will not clear on your board, no other figure on the specification sheet rescues the purchase, and the trial has given you its answer. - Whether it clears unaided. A machine that needs an operator to touch the pile every few cycles is doing a different job from the one you are buying. Count the interventions rather than judging the feel of the run. - The printed surface. Marking, scuffing, and compression show on the sheet face, and the printed side is the one that faces your customer. - The pile. Whether the stack stays square and stable through the machine is a handling question, and it belongs in the trial for that reason. Ask for a tooling change during the trial and time it yourself. Ask for the run at your target cycle rate rather than the supplier’s demonstration rate. Write the pass condition down before the trial starts, for example that every aperture in your layout clears with no operator intervention, in one pass, at your quoted rate, and treat “it mostly works” as a fail. ## When this machine is the wrong purchase A no is a useful answer, and there are jobs where it is the right one. If the smallest aperture in your work sits below what the machine will clear, and that aperture is staying in the mix, this is the wrong purchase. No other figure on the specification sheet compensates. If the volume on a format is low enough that clearing plugs is already part of an operator’s handling step, a machine can add a step rather than remove one. If cleaning has to keep pace with the station upstream and a standalone cleaner runs at its own cycle rate, the bottleneck may move rather than disappear. In that case the integrated architecture is the one to specify. And if your work is almost entirely tags and labels, the decision has an application side that is not on this page: the behaviour of those apertures on those products, and how the job is set up around them, sits in our [guide to inner hole cleaning for hang tags and labels](https://www.qdblanking.com/wp-content/uploads/wp-mfa-exports/post/automatic-paper-hole-cleaning-machine-hang-tags.md). ## What to send next Two numbers decide most of this, and you already have both: the smallest aperture you must clear, and the stack or product height you run. With those, a supplier can say whether an architecture fits before anyone works through the rest of the sheet, and can say honestly that it does not. Send them, with a sample of the board, through our [contact page](https://www.qdblanking.com/contact-us/). If the minimum cleaning diameter is the figure you are unsure about, say so in the message; it is the question we would put first. ## Sources MK Masterwork Group, “How to Choose an Industrial Die Cutting Machine” — machine-selection framework for die cutting. Flexographic Technical Association, “Slug Removal Methods for Improving Diecutting Efficiency & Speed,” 2022 — de-slugging separated from waste removal. JBC Technologies, “Slug Removal for Die Cutting,” 2018 — definition of a slug. [ Request a Quote ](https://www.qdblanking.com/contact-us/)