Cutting Insulation on a Production Line

Nice post...nice pic.

Sound like you have it well thought out.
I'd prefer the guillotine, (less dust and mess and simpler) you could have a spare set of blades and swap 'em out to allow re-sharpening if necessary. Dunno if the tar would gum up the blades.

Only other idea is maybe water jet? But that sounds expensive... hmmm ...good fun to set up tho'.

Del

There are lasers capable of cutting circuit boards (read glass, resin and metal) that should be able to do the job. No edges to get dull, no wear, no additional dust or loose fibers. (Just need reasonable extraction for the vapour)

We are currently experimenting with lasers to serial mark circuit boards and then to remove them from the parent panel. In your case, the laser would be fixed beam and be on a roller gantry across the cutting bed.

Branson Ultrasonics makes a ultrasonic assisted shear used for curring kevlar and other such difficult to cut materials. They may have just what you need.

http://www.branson-plasticsjoin.com/applications_textile.asp

Steel Rule Die (guillotine). I worked with Ceramic Fiber insulation and fiberglass mat cuts in one of my old jobs. sent it out for sharpening once a year.

Thank you all for your replies, I should have added, they don't want to spend much money, so whilst laser and water would be very desirable, the cost would be scary. I looked at a flying cutter, but there isn't sufficient room and the line runs at 20m/min. The line is also very old and completely without any documentation.

Steel rule die sounds interesting, but I assume I would require a lot of force over 1.2m.

The other problem I have, is the conveyor runs under the cut zone and whilst I can place a small hump (25mm) under the finished product, there is not room for a substantial beam, nor the ability to easily get rid of waste material. All suggestions will be investigated. Thanks again, Tony

Nice pic and post . If cutting apperatice is mounted on a moving gantry the material can be cut as its being fed there by speeding up Feed rate IE non-stop. reduce two (2) bored , dirty workers not one , and the shears Knife can be scraped clean, sharpened and lubercated to be non sticky automiticly as it returns for next shearing step. A hydrolic motor would allow variable gantry speed and shear speed.

All this is done on the fly.

John Minnesota.

Hi,

How about a large circular blade similar to a pizza cutter, these are readily available.

Mount it on a twin bar horizontal frame to enable it to slide in the same fashion as large tile cutters. The base can be metal plate with a HDPE sheet or other plastic screwed on it, this would enable an amount of self healing after each run. obviously a drop bar to hold the material steady whilst cutting takes place will be needed, this can be a simple lever operated item or assisted in some way indeed even the cutter traverse could be powered, dare I say doing away with the manual task altogether.

Dave R.