A belt cutting press is used for cutting materials by using a simple die cut bladed tool. Multiple cavity tools are used to maximise the part manufacturing efficiency and the press is fitted with a moving belt to efficiently feed the material through the process. Autins also operates simpler fixed base presses where the material is processed in blanks, usually for very large parts or for complicated material combinations such as laminates.
We have several sizes of cut and seal machines for cutting and heat sealing material and components in a single operation. The tools are manufactured to contain both the cut blade and sealing ‘ring’ and are designed ‘pre-shimmed’ to enable speedier process set up.
The heat for the sealing is delivered from the machine top and button plates and is optimised for each material type or combination. The presses are fitted with a moving belt to efficiently feed the material through the process and cradle systems to the rear of each machine enables us to laminate materials in line rather than sending them out for lamination off-site
Autins’ moulding presses are used to thermally form 3D parts from a selection of material types. The materials are initially preheated in a series of ovens and then placed on the tool. The tools are designed to cut the part form during the tool dwell time but our waterjets could be used for more complex shapes.
Our waterjets are used for cutting a wide variety of materials by using a very high-pressure jet of water. They are predominately used for more complex shapes or for heavy layer parts which can not be cut by a simple tool.
Also, infra red (IR) ovens are located before each waterjet and are used for heating up blanks of material for the vacuum moulding process. The material blanks are loaded directly onto the flat bed conveyor which automatically indexes at pre-set intervals under the infra red heater, then moves the product blank to the unload station for manual removal from the conveyor. The heated blanks are then placed on the chilled vac tools and when the vacuum is applied the part shape is formed.
Our ultrasonic welding machines are used to robustly attach an NVH pad to a plastic moulding. They provide a very efficient and cost-effective means of attachment and negate the need for any form of adhesive.
We also use an ultrasonic ‘sewing’ machine to seam, cut, slit, trim, and seal in a single process step. The shape and the design of the counter wheel is custom-made according to the kind of material the sewing machine works with and the kind of application.
The process provides the capability to assemble 3D shapes from simple flat cut parts
