Does anyone make a tiny automatic cutter for heatshrink?

Comatose · Apr 3, 2007

I'm looking for something essentially like a tiny automatic bandsaw, for heat shrink tubing (or other 2" wide or smaller things that come on a reel) where I could program or set the length, turn it on and have it slice hundreds or thousands of pieces to the same length without any (or much) user input. Something rotary with a manual crank would be fine.

I'm sure someone makes it, but who, and what is it called?

Thanks

Milacron · Apr 3, 2007

Such a machine does exist for cutting small pneumatic tubing, such as Festo 6mm plastic air line. But since pneumatic tubing is thicker walled an more rigid than heat shrink, it's quesionable whether a machine meant for that purpose would work for heatshrink...but maybe...call Festo or any of the industrial pneumatic fitting and tubing sales outlets like Livingston and Haven.

When I manufactured tapping machines, we used hundreds of different length pieces of Festo tubing. My volume wasn't quite enough to justify buying one of the automated tubing cutters, so I made a fixture with dedicated razor cuttoff, scale and sliding stop to make the process more tolerable at least.

JV · Apr 3, 2007

I am currently designing a small machine for cutting plastic welding wire to a programmed length. While the material to be cut is somewhat different from your application, the same basic concept might work for you as well.

In my design, the plastic wire runs between two driven toothed belts which pull the wire off the reel. The upper belt is shorter than the lower one, so the wire is partially exposed. A rubber wheel with a rotary encoder runs on the exposed portion of the plastic wire. The pulses from the encoder are fed into an electronic counter, which converts them into millimeters. At a programmed length, the counter automatically returns to zero and at the same time, closes a relay for a programmable length of time. The relay actuates a valve, which in turn closes a pneumatic shear.

dennh · Apr 3, 2007

You might want to check with an industrial wire supply house. Electronic hookup wire can be bought in bulk, in various gages, stripped and cut to length.

surplusjohn · Apr 3, 2007

THere is a machine used in the cut and sew trade called an ACE cutter, for cutting webbing, zippers, velcro, etc. has both cold shear blades and hot blades, will cut from 1/2 to 32 inches long automatically.
I had one of these running and built a small cutter for short lengths of velcro that was faster, simple air cylinders and a razor blade cuttoff. pinch, index forward, cut, repeat.\

Mike Folks · Apr 3, 2007

Eubanks at www.Eubanks.com makes a wire preperation machine that will measure,strip and crimp terminations onto stranded wire of many gauges. They may custom make a machine for your needs.

Gpm · Apr 3, 2007

Ace Co., LTD (http://www.optic.or.jp/com/ace/ace_e.html) may have what you're looking for...

yetisolar · Mar 30, 2014

Milacron said:
When I manufactured tapping machines, we used hundreds of different length pieces of Festo tubing. My volume wasn't quite enough to justify buying one of the automated tubing cutters, so I made a fixture with dedicated razor cuttoff, scale and sliding stop to make the process more tolerable at least.

+1 to this. I was even lazier, and bought a cutting table (called The Chopper II) with a razor arm and sliding stops and a scale. Works great for cutting a few dozen or a few hundred pieces. Not quite as fast as an automatic machine, but a heck of a lot cheaper (around $50). I was also able to get it to work for cutting lengths of wire (with some tweaking). If you're curious, I wrote a whole article detailing the process for cutting heatshrink and wire: Cut Heatshrink and Wire to Precise Lengths Quickly and Cheaply

doug8cat · Mar 30, 2014

I'm ambit confused you say automatic, some user input and manual ? I can think of a myriad of devices put together from my junk box that would do the job; point being cheap and effective.

Motor, blade, limit switches.

Please clarify.

John Welden · Mar 30, 2014

I found this one on Google in about 2 seconds
Tape | Tape Dispenser | Start International Light-Duty Material Cutter With Safety Guard ZCM2500 2: Wide | B880129 - GlobalIndustrial.com

I'm sure there are dozens of others.

yetisolar · Mar 30, 2014

What I did is more automatic than a ruler and scissors (or wirecutters, tubing cutters, etc.), less automatic than a machine where you feed in tubing, press 'start', and come back a few minutes later to a bin full of nicely chopped pieces. Those machines are generally pretty pricy, although when you come right down to it, they're actually a lot less complicated on the inside than say, an inkjet printer. If you can build one yourself, you can definitely save a lot of money. I thought about doing that, but ultimately decided throwing one together would result in a finicky machine, and building one to tight tolerances that didn't jam etc. would take too long.

I've seen a design for a homebrew electric wire cutter that used light sensors on the feed wheels and got the right length plus or minus, but I have a hard time envisioning limit switches. How would you propose to use limit switches?

yetisolar · Mar 30, 2014

I found this one on Google in about 2 seconds
Tape | Tape Dispenser | Start International Light-Duty Material Cutter With Safety Guard ZCM2500 2: Wide | B880129 - GlobalIndustrial.com

I'm sure there are dozens of others.

Sure, there are. But that machine is $900, and that's on the cheap end for those automatic machines. If you aren't cutting enough volume to justify investing in one of those, a slightly slower but much cheaper solution is appealing.

Chip Chester · Apr 6, 2014

I know this is kind of a zombie thread, but I ran across this today and it seemed "Ideal"...

Ideal Wire & Heat Shrink Cutting Machine

Under $200.

Chip

bobcov · Oct 27, 2018

JV said:
I am currently designing a small machine for cutting plastic welding wire to a programmed length. While the material to be cut is somewhat different from your application, the same basic concept might work for you as well.

In my design, the plastic wire runs between two driven toothed belts which pull the wire off the reel. The upper belt is shorter than the lower one, so the wire is partially exposed. A rubber wheel with a rotary encoder runs on the exposed portion of the plastic wire. The pulses from the encoder are fed into an electronic counter, which converts them into millimeters. At a programmed length, the counter automatically returns to zero and at the same time, closes a relay for a programmable length of time. The relay actuates a valve, which in turn closes a pneumatic shear.

What happened with this project? I am looking for a way to cut small lengths of heat shrink tubing. I'm in Germany.

EPAIII · Oct 27, 2018

Working in electronics I have cut many thousands of pieces of heat shrink tubing, often to the same length. The fastest way that I found for doing a few hundred pieces was with a paper cutter. An outboard fence speeds the process as you don't have to clear one batch before cutting another. I would lay several lengths of the HST on the cutter's table and shove them against the outboard fence. Cut. And repeat. It goes fast if you can bundle 5 or 10 lengths of the HST at one time.

I would not consider an automatic machine until I needed many thousands cut at one time. Even a 1000 quantity will go fast with the paper cutter. And a low skill level assistant can do it.

PS: That outboard fence can just be a heavy object on the bench or even a wall. No need for anything fancy.

Strostkovy · Oct 27, 2018

EPAIII said:
Working in electronics I have cut many thousands of pieces of heat shrink tubing, often to the same length. The fastest way that I found for doing a few hundred pieces was with a paper cutter. An outboard fence speeds the process as you don't have to clear one batch before cutting another. I would lay several lengths of the HST on the cutter's table and shove them against the outboard fence. Cut. And repeat. It goes fast if you can bundle 5 or 10 lengths of the HST at one time.

I would not consider an automatic machine until I needed many thousands cut at one time. Even a 1000 quantity will go fast with the paper cutter. And a low skill level assistant can do it.

PS: That outboard fence can just be a heavy object on the bench or even a wall. No need for anything fancy.

I was about to mention a paper cutter until I saw the date on the posts. Then I scrolled down to see who brought this thread back, and bam, paper cutter.

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Does anyone make a tiny automatic cutter for heatshrink?

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