Design and Fabrication Of Pneumatic Rubber Pipe Cutting Machine.

The manufacturing industry demands efficiency in production while maintaining the desired quality of the products. In this era of Industry 4.0 efficient methods are developed for mass production in least possible time while maintaining quality and keeping Ergonomic aspects under consideration to reduce work-related fatigue, automation plays an important role in it. Manually operated cutting machines often yield inconsistent and low output. The objective of this project is to design and fabricate a pneumatically operated rubber pipe cutting (PRPC) machine which can utilise multiple circular cutting tools to cut multiple workpieces in a single cycle and thus increase the efficiency of the production. The PRPC machine is powered using an electric motor and a worm gearbox is used to transfer the power from the motor to the rotating mandrel/spindle. Multiple circular cutting tools are mounted on mild steel(M.S.) guideway and positioned below the mandrel/spindle and can be calibrated in terms of length required and are operated using a pneumatic cylinder. This arrangement of circular cutting tools helps to increase production rate in the least possible time. The first operation of the new machine resulted in decreasing production time for a batch of 800 units from 12 hours to 5 hours.