Press cutting characteristics of plastic pipe by using knife edge tool

摘要

The hand tools for cutting plastic pipe are very useful. However, these tools require the user to exert enormous amounts of power. In order to improve the cutting performance of hand tools, we investigated the relationships among the geometry of the cutting tool, the distance between the supports of the plastic pipe, and the cutting force. We manufactured a special device for measuring the force required for cutting. Because the cross section of plastic pipe is not uniform, the cutting force does not remain constant and exhibits large peaks at the initial and the final stages of cutting. It is found that the cutting force increases with the increases of the angle of the tool edge or with the increases of radius of the tool tip. In addition, the friction force is a major component of the cutting force during the entire cutting process, and the frictional coefficient is greatly affected by the grinding direction of the tool.