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Cutting of textile - 0,1mm

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Pavel Zemanec

Pavel Zemanec

Industrial
May 10, 2019
7
Dear all,

I would like to ask you for your help / tips. We have very simple task but unfortunatelly limited budget :-(

We would need to cut from very thin textile (0,1mm) two simple shapes - see attached drawings and pictures. Required cycle time: max. 30 s / 1 cutted piece.

We tested CO2 laser - 30W and the result was good but this solution was not approved by our customer because of high costs. Would you have any tips for this task? Our idea is to cut the complete shape with some stamp where some hot wire in the required shape could be integrated. Maybe we would need to use special teflon surface in order to avoid sticking etc. Does anybody have any experience with such a solution or do you know about similar technology / application?

Thank you very much for your help :)
 
 https://files.engineering.com/getfile.aspx?folder=23c3ffeb-8eb3-4e1c-8593-255922e13408&file=Textile_Cutting.pdf
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Steel rule die cutting

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of these Forums?
 
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Unfortunatelly the die cutting was not working properly because of the burrs etc. Just as an information the material is in 150 mm wide roll and the cutting system will also be connected with unrolling system for the input material - fabrics.
 
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Some materials cut well with high pressure water jet, and the material does not even get damp.
Honestly, laser is the right way to do this.

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P.E. Metallurgy, Plymouth Tube
 
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You might try a CNC machine with a frisket knife, be aware that you will not get many parts before the knife begins to dull and drag the part.
B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.
 
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How many pieces need to be produced ?

No actual textile experience, but when you said "burrs" my first thought was the die needs to be sharper, but then again you have not provided any detail about the actual die cutting set up.
I'm assuming the punch is hollow and sharp to create a knife edge, not 90° like when die cutting metal etc.

Sometimes the backing material needs to be "sticky" or "tacky" to keep the material from creeping or bunching.
Along the same lines it might help to Control the material outside the cut with a foot or blank holder as used in deep drawing metal parts.

30 seconds might be enough to run the fabric thru liquid nitrogen or something similar to stiffen it up.
 
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There's Cricut which potentially can meet the accuracy requirement:
Nevertheless, I would suggest that you re-explore diecut, since that's pretty much the standard; if you are getting burrs, you should consult your die supplier or change to a different supplier.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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Steel rule dies are the historical standard for this application.
They are fast, clean, and very durable if built correctly.

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P.E. Metallurgy, Plymouth Tube
 
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What is the material? It looks to be some sort of synthetic loose weave?

You might possibly need a hot die to cut it cleanly, in addition to making sure it's under some amount of tension during the cutting.
Is the accuracy requirement 0.1 mm as implied by the title of this thread?

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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Dear all,

thank you very much for your tips. It is synthetic material and 0,1mm is not the accuracy, it is thickness of the material. The material doesn´t have to be cutted in more layers, one layer is enough because the cycle time can be arround 20s/piece. The hot die cut sounds really good and it is something I was thinking about. I don´t have any experience with this. What is the best and cheapest way to heat the tool/edges? I was thinking to cut the shape (in one layer) with some hot wire which could have the same shape as cutted shape... But never seen such a thing :-(

Thank you very much for your help.
 
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Hot wire would require some sort of stencil to prevent the wire from dragging material, since the contact of the hot wire with the material will cause a lateral tension component.

So, if the accuracy is not 0.1 mm, then what is the accuracy?
The cheapest way to heat the die is with electric heating elements.

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I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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Oh, OK, then a stencil/clamp could possibly work with a hot wire cutter. How many pieces do you need to make?

Nevertheless, a hot die is probably a quicker and more repeatable approach, and likely, more accurate, and more likely to support batch processing, if it gets to that point.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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It is a serial production... Around 450.000 pcs in the next 3-4 years... Cycle time is not a problem - 1 piece/20 s...
 
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A die is still likely to be cheaper, as well, given that you only need to make the shape motion once, to create the die itself. In actual usage, the die simply moves down and up, while every hot wire cut will require moving the wire or the stencil with a 2D motion stage.

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I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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Moreover, it's not clear whether a hot wire can cut fast enough for your application, since you need a cut speed of more than 12 mm/s to cut the first shape within 30 seconds, and 8 mm/s for the second shape. Hot wire cutting of foam, admittedly not the same thing, is done at much slower speeds.

An alternate is essentially a wire bandsaw: which claims 77 m/s for cutting solids

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I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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At that qty, over the next 3 years, based on 7 hrs. of production per day (8 hrs. minus a 30 minute lunch & (2)15 minute breaks) = one piece is needed every 43 seconds. At 4 years you have 60 seconds per part.

At that rate, why not just a sharp "shaped" punch, a mallet, a solid table, and one operator. Depending on what country the work is performed . . . labor is cheap.
 
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Germany...
Customer is customer :) ... They want to have automatical unrolling system for fabric (it is in 15cm width roll) connected with automatical cutting of shapes...
 
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There's a story from my ex-boss about a trip to China made in 1985 timeframe, where the Chinese were buying surplus semiconductor manufacturing and test equipment for their nascent industry. Because they had limited budgets but massive amount of labor, they bought manual probe stations for wafer testing, and the operators would sit there for x hours a day, moving the probes from one die to the next on a wafer and then hitting the test button for the electronic tester. Presumably, if the die failed, they would hit another button, and the bad die would be marked with a red ink dot. It probably took them 10 times longer to test this way, than with a fully automated step-and-test hardware, but it was much cheaper.

Likewise, in your case, you could certainly have an automated unrolling with a manual cutting operation.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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Talk with a garment manufacturer. There are many that work as job shops.

A rotary die might be a better option than a steel rule.
 
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