Rotary Fly-Knife Cutter
The Rotary Fly-Knife Cutter is an inline (part of an extrusion line) or offline (standalone unit) cutting unit that executes clean (chipless) accurate cuts on various post-extruded plastic and rubber profiles and tubes, such as automotive gaskets, rigid PVC irrigation tubing, and custom profiles. This unit belongs to CDS's family of "Fly-knife Cutters," which employ a fly-knife wheel accommodating a blade whose shape and material are optimized for the material being cut.
One of the significant markets to which CDS sells its products and services is the "custom profile extrusion" market, a market comprised of extrusion processors who make a variety of profiles and tubes for different industries. Because of its versatility, this unit is ideally suited for this market. The machine can be used to cut small flexible tubes at high speeds to rigid profiles at slow to medium speeds
When part of an extrusion line, the cutter receives a signal from a Puller via an encoder, which tells the cutter "when" to cut. Because its uses as servo motor and drive, the cut is very precise and consistent. It also, because of the servo drive system, applies torque more efficiently; in other words full torque can be utilized across the whole speed range spectrum.
Advantages of 2 significant features
Feature: Servo AC motor and drive
Benefits and advantages over: DC motors and drives
a) greater cutting accuracy and cut repeatability (i.e., it cuts at the targeted length more consistently) than traditional clutch/brake cutters
b) tighter synchronization with the overall extrusion line speed (it follows the extrusion line speed dictated by the puller more accurately)
c) Cleaner operation and hence less maintenance requirements : Because of its enclosure the servo motor does emit any debris
Feature: PLC touch screen operator interface
Benefits and advantages over analog control systems
a) Set a multitude of performance parameters (e.g. cut length, cutting speed, pressure, etc..) with finite precision (i.e., by entering numeric data)
b) Programs sophisticated functions like "batch cutting", in which each batch has the unit cutting a certain number of parts at a certain cut length
Example Batch 1: "Cuts 60 parts at 3: inches"; Batch # 2: Cuts 30 parts at 2 inches long, etc.."
d ) Monitor cutting performance through digital readouts
e ) Provides alarm notifications and trouble shooting info
