JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #38 - January/February 2008 - 14

EQUIPMENT EQUIPMENT EQUIPMENT EQUIPMENT EQUIPMENT Cutting tools Manual solutions for high-tech textiles While the manual tools used to cut paper or fabrics can be basic, the composite industry requires hard-wearing and highly-specialized cutting tools due to the high-performance fibres used. The city of Solingen in Germany has a strong tradition in cutlery, and a company naturally emerged from this area as a specialist of what can be qualified as really hard-to-cut materials. forged scissors instead of standard C45 steel grades. The advantage of C60 steel grades is that they can be hardened up to 59.0 HRC, which is a gain of 3.0 HRC over C45 steel grades. The HRC function is purely exponential in that these extra 3.0 HRC cover the whole cutting range from inferior to high-grade materials. Successfully handling high-tech textiles requires scissors with one blade featuring optimized cutting edge geometry in combination with micro-serrated teeth designed to stop troublesome material slippage. To keep up with the development of high-tech fibres, the quality of cutting devices needs to be constantly upgraded. This is why, at the end of 1995, Robuso developed the Robuso Proton® scissors that feature a 2µm AlTiN-coating on the C60 steel, with a hardness rating of 2800 HV . This provides a service life that is five times longer when cutting aramid. These scissors dethroned the delicate ceramic scissors. JCM: Is manual cutting an old-fashioned practice in the industry? R. H.: No, it isn’t. You can’t do away with manual cutting when you think of quality trimming along a mould, regardless of the material thickness. Automated systems are certainly helpful in cutting elaborate geometric patterns, yet they are both expensive and fault-prone, especially their electronic control systems, where abrasive fibreglass and carbon dusts are responsible for frustrating down-times. Two or three workers “armed” with electro-powered heavy-duty shears produce the same – if not higher – cutting results than a completely automated system. More information Robuso is a family-owned company founded in 1919 in Solingen, Germany. The production of razors, blades and scissors dominated the first few decades of its operation. In 1948, Robuso gradually adapted its production to meet the demands of the garment industry. Today, the company has more than 35 years of experience in cutting technical textiles like carbon, glass and aramid using a range of manual, electro- and air-powered shears and scissors, and provides all-automatic cutting solutions. JCM: Is there a difference between cutting glass, carbon, aramid or highly-crystalline polyethylene fibres? R. H.: As far as cutting abrasive glass, carbon and similar fibres is concerned, scissors made of standard C60 steel grades are still the best solution seeing that such fabrics do not require the same precise cutting-edge quality as aramid, PBO, etc. Scissors with AlTiN-coated or carbide metal blades are excellent for use with aramid or highly-crystalline polyethylene materials and guarantee a long and reliable service life. JCM: What is the difference between electro-powered shears and rotary blades in terms of cutting performance? R. H.: Rotary blade shears were originally developed for use in the classical garment industry, where cutting of clothing materials is less demanding. Our pneumatic and electro-powered rotary blade shears AN INTERVIEW WITH RAINER HÜCKELHOVEN, DIRECTOR TECHNICAL SALES, ROBUSO JEC Composites Magazine: There never seems to be a problem in cutting fabrics. How do you feel about that? Rainer Hückelhoven: Before synthetic fibre fabrics appeared on the market, tailors were warned: “Never cut paper with your tailor scissors!” That was true in the past, when fabrics were made of wool, cotton, flax, or even leather and silk, all of them being easy to handle in comparison with high-tech textiles. In the past, paper was made of wood, usually kicking up dust when being cut, a hard enough job in those days. Scissors made from unalloyed, finishhardened steel were perfectly suitable to handle these materials. Today, paper is clean stuff whereas high-tech textiles like carbon, glass fibre, aramid, etc. are sometimes tougher to handle than some steel grades. In the 1970s, Robuso started using unalloyed C60 high carbon steel in their Robuso electro powered heavy-duty shears JEC Composites Magazine / No38 January - February 2008

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #38 - January/February 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #38 - January/February 2008