How Jigsaw Puzzles Are Made? (Mega Factories Video)

A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of often oddly shaped interlocking and mosaiced pieces. Typically, each individual piece has a portion of a picture; when assembled, the jigsaw puzzle produces a complete picture.

Most modern jigsaw puzzles are made out of paperboard since they are easier and cheaper to mass-produce than the original wooden models. An enlarged photograph or printed reproduction of a painting or other two-dimensional artwork is glued onto the cardboard before cutting. This board is then fed into a press. The press forces a set of hardened steel blades of the desired shape through the board until it is fully cut. This procedure is similar to making shaped cookies with a cookie cutter. The forces involved, however, are tremendously greater and a typical 1000-piece puzzle requires a press that can generate upwards of 700 tons of force to push the knives of the puzzle die through the board. A puzzle die is a flat board, often made from plywood, which has slots cut or burned in the same shape as the knives that are used. These knives are set into the slots and covered in a compressible material, typically foam rubber, which serves to eject the cut puzzle pieces.

New technology has enabled laser-cutting of wooden or acrylic jigsaw puzzles. The advantage of cutting with a laser is that the puzzle can be custom cut into any size, any shape, with any size (or any number) of pieces. Many museums have laser cut acrylic puzzles made of some of their more important pieces of art so that children visiting the museum can see the original piece and then assemble a jigsaw puzzle of the image that is also in the same shape as the piece of art. Acrylic is used because the pieces are very durable, waterproof, and can withstand continued use without the image fading, or the pieces wearing out, or becoming frayed. Also, because the print and cut patterns are computer-based, lost pieces can be manufactured without remaking the entire puzzle.

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Watch some of our other interesting manufacturing videos:
How Plywood Is Made In Factories?
How LUXURY Rolls-Royce Cars Are Made ?
How Pencils are made in Factories?

[electronron]

I don't want to brag but I finished a puzzle in a week and the box said 6 to 12 years.

[AndrewBlack]

The metal die was the interesting bit and you skipped over how it was created.

[debpoarch]

I've always been interested in how puzzles are made. This was great! Would like to have had more focus on the die and cutting process tho.

[rodneybettimontenegro]

I was curious on how it was made, but what I would consider the most interesting part, how the "die cut" is engineered, was given little attention

[robertweldon]

From first hand (professional) experience; The thing used to cut the puzzle is a "Steel Rule Die", and is, when new, near razor sharp. The machine used to cut the puzzle is called a "die cutting PRESS, most likely fitted with an automatic machine called a "scrapper/stripper and packer.
The die making process is very involved and requires an awful lot more work than inserting a RULE piece into the die board.
Sorry, I was a die cutter operator for more than 20 years and the art part is only a part of the process, not most of it. My job, at times, could rise to the level of art also.
The whole video should have been much longer than this. I'm very disappointed. ;-(

[joeltham]

Gosh! No wonder they cost so much. I like the part where the blades are hammered in place.

[thomasstambaugh]

I had hoped for some detail about the process for ensuring that each piece is unique, so that there is only one combination of two (for edge) or four (for interior) neighbors that fits. This uniqueness must be harder for a large (3, 000+ pieces) than a small (150 piece) puzzle. Is it done by hand? By computer?

While I found the video entertaining, this is what really interests me the most -- and is missing.

[bravo]

The main bit I was wondering about was how they separated the jigsaw puzzle after it was stamped, whether it went over a vibrating plate or something like that. They skipped right past that bit. The puzzle is stamped, then it 'comes out the other side' all separated and ready to be bagged.

[sherrywebber]

I absolutely LOVE Jigsaw puzzles... my parents kept a card table up at all times as a family activity as my brother & I grew up in the 60's & 70's. Thank you SO much for publishing this & the most interesting was the end where I found out that there is a largest puzzle in the world. I'm going to forward this video to my childhood friend of 51yrs as her parents did the same thing & we helped each other with puzzles when we visited each other over night!! Great informative YouTube!❤💕

[calebchild]

"Each dice is a unique specimen"
Me fail English? That's unpossible!

[markylon]

most small jigsaw factories use the same die cutter for all their jigsaws which means that all the actual pieces are identical and you actually combine pieces with different pictures and they will fit perfectly

[TheMakersPiece]

This was interesting to watch! Have done a handful of puzzles myself and gotta love the amount of work and effort behind them ☺️💛

[AroMaths]

2:58 Now THIS is the most American thing I have ever seen... An instruction manual for a puzzle?! (In Germany there might be a flyer what to buy next, but a manual? Lol)
Still, nice video!

[Shawbonez]

The artwork is absolutely amazing! I would love to have them on the cardboard UNcut and framed! We used to glue puzzles together on a board and display them, but it's just not the same with the lines in them. ...Even though the cutting and placing of the dies is definitely fascinating, too! Thank you for this video! :)

[MrSaemichlaus]

I always assumed the pieces would be cut like cookies, by the whole sheet going through big rollers with one having all the contoured knives on it. But then they'd obviously need a way of stripping the pieces out of the knives, maybe with an excentric cam pushing out lots of pins. I would've loved to know how many times the knives can be used before they go dull. Paper or cardboard is apparently pretty bad on metal blades.

[michaelmccrory]

The die cutting was very interesting to see because of the precision needed to make a quality product.

[johndelaney]

I started getting into doing puzzles about a year and a half ago, when I got an advertising email from one of the news sites I read. It was for a 1000 piece puzzle of Military medals (I'm a Marine, so I liked the idea). It took quite a while for me to complete it because of ADD, but once it was finished, it now is framed and on my wall. A long time friend of the family sent me a web address for the DEVILS PUZZLE, which is a unique puzzle, because there isn't a picture to follow-its just weird shapes. Later, he sent me a link for the UNIDRAGON puzzles and those became a nice challenge. I've completed 3 of them (and all of my puzzles are hanging up on the wall). When the $$ is available, I'm going to have two photographs printed (6 copies of each) and made into puzzles and I'm going to get two circular puzzled made. I'm retired, so I have the time to do it.

[theannoyedmrfloyd]

I'm going to start a company making puzzles but with 1 missing piece.

[papillon_dore]

I., am a grandma and i spend 2 hours everyday
To make jigsaw puzzles . Thank's a lot.

[sylbye]

The entire process it's amazing 🤩🧩 Love it. Every Jigsaw Puzzle is a piece of art 🥰🤩😍