Hello
The way I would do this would be to use a two wheel pinch roller driven by a variable speed motor through an eighth inch pipe to a air actuated shear then a twelve or thirty inch pipe to a photo cell to trigger the shear use two time delays one to drive the shear and another to prevent double stroking of the shear and allow the part to fall away. The shear could be made from two pieces of heat treated A2 entry hole about .020 larger than the wire to be cut and the exit or slide plate would be about .040 larger and connected to a truck air brake actuator.
my two cents worth
Need ideas, measuring cable lengths
Jim,
You might want to find some pictures of automated wire cutters used to precut lengths of wire used in cable harnesses. It has been years since I worked at a place that did this kind of work, but they had a bunch of these little machines that you set a 1000' spool of wire on, dialed in the length of wire you wanted and it started to spit out precut lengths to your setting. It would stop when it hit the number you wanted, or the spool was empty. Sorry I don't remember the manufacturer, but do remember that it was a very simple machine (and reliable). It was a small electric motor driving pinch rollers and a clutch actuated flying shear. KISS at it's best. I am sure a little web searching would yield similar machines.
Good luck, and post some pictures of the results.
Bill
You might want to find some pictures of automated wire cutters used to precut lengths of wire used in cable harnesses. It has been years since I worked at a place that did this kind of work, but they had a bunch of these little machines that you set a 1000' spool of wire on, dialed in the length of wire you wanted and it started to spit out precut lengths to your setting. It would stop when it hit the number you wanted, or the spool was empty. Sorry I don't remember the manufacturer, but do remember that it was a very simple machine (and reliable). It was a small electric motor driving pinch rollers and a clutch actuated flying shear. KISS at it's best. I am sure a little web searching would yield similar machines.
Good luck, and post some pictures of the results.
Bill
Jim,
We have done this type of machine before. use pinch rollers to drive the cable and use an encoder with a rubber wheel to measure ( like Bill mentioned)
What AB Micro do you have? Depending on the Micro you can use a high speed input to tie the encoder to and if it a 1100 or greater Ab makes a Data access terminal for about $130 that can be used to set the length
count.
If you have micro 1000 the thumbwheel binary to integer will work also, it uses a a bunch in inputs is its only drawback.
Rick
We have done this type of machine before. use pinch rollers to drive the cable and use an encoder with a rubber wheel to measure ( like Bill mentioned)
What AB Micro do you have? Depending on the Micro you can use a high speed input to tie the encoder to and if it a 1100 or greater Ab makes a Data access terminal for about $130 that can be used to set the length
count.
If you have micro 1000 the thumbwheel binary to integer will work also, it uses a a bunch in inputs is its only drawback.
Rick