thermal cutter recommendations?

[tygerdawg]

Hi All

This R&D / Customer feasibility project bombed the first time with another engineer, now it has landed in my lap. We want to attach a thermal cutter or hot knife of some sort to a robot. It will be used to cut a a plastic automotive part, total distance ~400 mm max. Thickness ~4mm. Will require a lot of heat flux I think to melt all that plastic, may not be feasible with heat.

I have done the typically-worthless Google searches and dug through various plastics processing equipment suppliers without success. Can anyone provide me some names of equipment suppliers? North American preferred, but will look at them all.

TygerDawg

 

[IRstuff]

The problem is two-fold. The 16" length is too long for such a cutter. The typical nichrome wire cutter used for hobbyist use will sag significantly during heating and a lot tension would be required to keep it marginally saggy.

Given that it is saggy, there might be difficulty in keeping the cutting kerf straight.

A hot knife edge might be more appropriate

Can't you get your supplier to supply it pre-cut?

TTFN

 

[HDS]

In thermoforming parts like that are usually cut with a CNC router with 3 to 5 axis. Some people are using water jets and occasionally lasers. I don't know of anyone using hot knives. Simple parts are cut using hand routers and fixtures.

The Thermoforming division of SPE is a good place to start looking at equipment and options. There will be lots of turn key setups.

http://www.thermoformingdivision.com/

I know that robots are getting popular for this kind of trimming work but they still use the same cutting methods. I saw an add for one that had turn table for the part and could be rolled around the factory as needed.