MH 721 Foil Cutting

[osresearch 0]

I work for a company in New Jersey called O&S Research, INC.  We recently purchased the US Cutter Refine MH721 for the purpose of cutting the alluminum foil pieces that line the interior of our coating machines (glass coating).  These pieces have always been cut out by hand using wood templates, so we thought maybe a cutter/plotter could be used to eliminate the need for the hands-on work.  However I am having some difficulty with getting the settings right.  I can use the pen attachment and get the outline to plot onto the foil but I was wondering if anyone had some advice on how to cut the foil.  Right now the speed is on its lowest setting of 4 inches/sec and the force is about at 100-150g.  Side to side cuts are usually ok, as well as when the cutter is pulling the foil back into the machine.  However, when the foil is being pushed out is where it is the worst.  I realize the cutter wasnt exactly meant for this, so I have also tried to just make it so it does "perforated" cuts.  Currently the drawings are all in AutoCAD and I am just exporting them from AutoCAD to SignBlazer.  When I set the line type to be dotted, and bring it into SignBlazer, the blade will go make 3 lines on the one side, come to the other side and make 3 lines, then back to the other side, so the plotting/cutting would take about an hour if i let it do its thing.  I haven't tested but I would guess that has something to do with the settings in the "setup" menu.  Maybe I will try the "fastest path" instead.  Anyway, my question was if anyone knew what kind of blade pressure I should be using, if maybe a better angled blade would help, or any suggestions to make this procedure run much smoother.

If worse comes to worse I will just use the pen attachment to make the outline to just elimate the wooden templates.

Thanks,

Rob McMichael

[Popeye 0]

A 60 deg blade may work better... also make sure the blade is set correctly http://forum.uscutter.com/index.php/topic,3362.0.html

Is the foil on any kind of a backer?

You might try putting the foil between two sheets of paper...

Not much help

[kenimes 42]

I have only seen one other post where a customer tried to cut foil with some success. Not as good as vinyl, but not impossible. I believe they used some sort of low tack backing because the foil is so flimsy.

[osresearch 0]

Yeah I will definitely try to get some 60 degree blades.  I have it working pretty well now, except for it still getting bound up when feeding out and cutting.... the foil has no backing its just 0.003" thick foil i believe, somewhere around there.  If i hold the foil down as its feeding it, it works really well... but that requires me to actually act as another roller and keep the foil flat so the blade can cut accordingly.  I have it just cutting a dashed line and making a perforated cut, which is easily punched out when done, that way the foil isnt getting cut out completely and the shape will stay in place.  

To fix this problem I guess i could design another roller to guide the foil out the front side after the cutter.  But it would also need to pull it to keep tension on the foil.... hmmm a duel roller system would be nice....

[Popeye 0]

0.003 is awful thin ..  I'm impressed it's doing as well as it is.

It just goes to show that given a little time and patience these things can cut about anything 

[marcuso 15]

Is there any reason why you are using foil rather than a reflective vinyl material?  You can get reflective vinyl that looks just like foil, but cuts just like vinyl.  If that is not an option, I would suggest a cutting mat with some tack.  It is on the list of products that we would like to carry, but we haven't found a reliable supplier yet.  Hopefully we will have something within the next month.  Another option would be to laminate the foil on some low-tack application tape.  Good luck.

- Marcus

[osresearch 0]

well the foil is for the inside of a coating machine, vinyl would just melt inside of the machine, the foil is used so that most of the coating overspray is gather on it rather than the door of the coating unit.  the cutter works just fine as long as i put tension on the foil so it always remains flat.  the perforation technique is much better than straight through cutting, maybe we can find a way that you just have to attach weights to the foil before each cut.  this is just to eliminate the need for wood cutouts and hand cutting pieces.