Vacuum Knife Tool for Textile Cutting and Bonding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional cutting tools for materials used in manufacturing, such as footwear and apparel, often cause defects like peeling, curling, and air trapping during bonding, leading to suboptimal bonding processes.
Innovation Solution
A vacuum-assisted cutting tool with a core and knife portion, utilizing vacuum pressure to secure the material and prevent air trapping, combined with an ultrasonic welding system for precise cutting and bonding.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If traditional cutting tools are used to cut material, then cutting can be performed, but defects such as peeling, curling, and air trapping occur during bonding
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the cutting function and vacuum holding function into a single integrated tool. The tool includes a cutting blade for cutting material and a vacuum distributor with vacuum apertures for holding the material during cutting and bonding. This integration ensures the material remains flat and securely positioned throughout the entire process, preventing defects like peeling, curling, and air trapping, thereby improving both cutting quality and bonding reliability simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The vacuum distributor acts as an intermediary between the cutting blade and the material being cut. By applying vacuum pressure through the vacuum apertures, it mediates the interaction between the cutting tool and material, ensuring the material remains flat and securely positioned during cutting and subsequent bonding, thus preventing bonding defects while maintaining cutting effectiveness.
2Productivity
If material is cut without vacuum assistance, then cutting speed is maintained, but air is trapped between cut material and bonding material
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the cutting operation with vacuum-assisted material holding in a single integrated tool. The vacuum distributor with multiple vacuum apertures is incorporated into the cutting tool body, allowing simultaneous cutting and vacuum holding. This eliminates air trapping between layers during bonding while maintaining high cutting speed, as no separate vacuum holding step is required.
3Manufacturing precision
If vacuum pressure is applied during cutting, then material alignment is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent integrates the vacuum distributor system directly into the cutting tool structure. The vacuum distributor with multiple vacuum apertures is incorporated into the tool body, allowing vacuum pressure to be applied through the same tool used for cutting. This unified design improves material alignment during cutting without requiring separate vacuum holding devices, thereby minimizing the increase in device complexity while achieving precise alignment.
Solution Approach 2:
The cutting tool is designed with multi-functionality, serving both as a cutting blade and a vacuum holding device. The tool can perform cutting operations and simultaneously apply vacuum pressure to hold and align material. This universal design eliminates the need for separate specialized tools, improving material alignment while keeping the overall system complexity manageable through consolidation of functions.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution effectively reduces defects and deformations, ensuring accurate cutting and strong bonding by evacuating air and maintaining material alignment, resulting in improved manufacturing outcomes.
Implementation Method 1
A vacuum-assisted cutting tool with a core and knife portion, utilizing vacuum pressure to secure the material and prevent air trapping
Data Source
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AI summary
Cutting of a material (710, 712), such as a textile or film, can damage the material. A tool (100) is provided that utilizes vacuum pressure near a knife edge (104) to increase a result of the cut. The vacuum pressure passes through a base portion (302) of the tool that has a recessed portion (312) effective to distribute vacuum pressure to one or more apertures (214) extending around an insert (206) of a core portion (202). The one or more apertures (214) align with a void between the knife edge (104) and the insert (206) allowing for the void to transmit the vacuum pressure through the tool (100) to the knife edge (104). A machine horn (702) may then cut the material (710) at the knife edge (104) and couple the material (710) with another material (712).