for SHEARS | WIRE CUTTERS | SCISSORS | SECATEURS | PRUNERS | SNIPS
- Measures the sharpness and edge life of scissors, shears, snips, secateurs and wire cutters for quality control, research, development and competitor product evaluation.
- Quickly and accurately provides important cutting performance data.
- Fully automatic windows based system allows operator to multi task.
- Fully programmable to allow operation to a standard or user’s own specific requirements.
- Built in database allows easy comparisons with previous test data.
- Test cuts made in a variety of media. i.e. paper, fabric, polymers, fibres, wire, tubing etc.
- Flexible design of product holders allows testing of both bowed and non-bowed products.
- Can be set to operate with or without controlled bow side pressure.
- CATRA has developed this cutting test system, which hopefully will become the basis of an International Standard.
- Optional sharpness only tester version available, with hand fed test media.
Such a cutting performance test will enable users:
• to compare objectively various brands, designs and types of scissors and determine which one is superior to another;
• to monitor the consistency of quality of cutting performance against the norm of manufacturing, to be sure that the knives are within the standard values agreed upon;
• to be used as a development tool to enable research into the optimum steel, heat treatment, surface coating, edge geometry and finishing operations to suit the application.
Testing Method
Measurement of sharpness of scissors, shears and other two blade sharing type cutters is best achieved by measuring the effort required to cut a standardised material under controlled and repeatable test conditions. The lower the cutting effort the sharper and therefore the better the performance of the product is. This is achieved in this machine by mounting the scissors onto the adjustable spigots, one through each bow. One of these spigots is rigidly mounted to the machine frame. The other is mounted to an adjustable motor driven crank arm, such that the pivot of the scissors is in line with the centre of rotation of the crank arm. This spigot also has an adjustable bow side pressure applicator that can be set to simulate the side pressure often applied by the human hand when operating scissors or shears.
Within the crank arm is a high accuracy force sensor, which reacts to the effort applied by the arm to close the scissors when rotating through a predetermined arc at the programmable speed of the test.
The test media, can take a number of forms, but normally for scissors, special paper is used, which has controlled abrasive properties, as specified in ISO 8442.5 for measuring knife sharpness. The media is stored and fed from a tension controlled roller system which allows coordinated incremental amount of media to be passed into the open blades of the scissors.
The scissors are then closed under the control of the crank arm, during which the applied force to the moveable bow are fully recorded in real time.
The controlling and data recording computer analyses the force curve and selects the peak force as a measure of sharpness, alternatively the total energy for the whole cut can be recorded, calculated and used as the comparative factor.
By repeating the cuts many times, the changes in the closing force can be monitored which then gives a measurement of the wear resistance of the device under test.
The system is fully programmable, so that the user can choose the test parameters, for example, the total number of test cycles, how often force measurements are taken etc. The speed of scissors operation can be slowed down during the force measurement cycle to reduce vibration from scissors ensuring a very clear picture of the cutting forces and any variation in performance along the blade length.
The test analysis software is windows based and integrated with Microsoft Excel for data manipulation / graphical representation/ test reporting and Access for data storage, which then allows easy comparison with previous tests.
Specifications
| Scissor blade length range | 25mm – 175mm |
| Scissor pivot to mid bow position | 30mm – 110mm |
| Bow side pressure range | 0N – 10N |
| Blade opening range | 0° – 65° |
| Cutting speed range | 0 – 30 cuts per minute |
| Flat media width | 20mm – 215mm, which is suitable for paper, plastics sheet, card and fabrics |
| Media feed increment | infinitely adjustable |
| Size | 760mm wide x 580mm deep x 805mm high |
| Weight | 60kg |
| Power | 230V, 50Hz (optional 110V, 60Hz) maximum power consumption 750W |
- The bow clamps are fully adjustable to enable side bent and offset bow scissors to be fitted.
- Alternative media carriers are available, which are suitable for wire, plastics profiles, thin sheet metal.
- Integrated programmable motion control and force measurement facility with external laptop computer to enable report generation and data storage.
- See through machine safety screen interlocked to the control system.
- The machine is bench mounted (optionally available floor standing frame).
- Free standing with own frame and safety screen, which are constructed in anodised aluminium and black oxide treated steel.
Please discuss with us any specific applications you may have, as the machine design is very flexible, we may be able to make simple modifications to suit your requirements, in terms of hardware, control system, data analysis software and test materials.
CATRA can also supply a range of consistent calibrated test materials in various formats, please discuss you requirements with us.