Due to the demand for an increasing quality of cutted or slitted products and the requirement of rising productivity in the slitting process, the optimization of mechanical slitting is gaining in importance for the converting industry.In this paper the shear slitting process is analysed theoretically on the basis of a nonlinear orthotropic material law. In a basic investigation the states of stress and strain in the compression phase of the slitting process are discussed. The following application oriented calculations investigate the influence of individual parameters and lead to the suggestion of an optimal cutting tool geometry depending on the material to be cut
