In response to repeated customer requests for an economical and compact tool head machine that would machine material edges, cut channels and grooves, and rout out holes and custom apertures in thick sheet materials such as PVC, laminated plastics and perspex, Blackman and White&rsquos engineering team came up with an economical routing tool head.

One of the biggest problems with designing a router or routing tool head for a flatbed cutting machine, is the removal and disposal of the large amounts or dust and cutting debris that is produced by the high speed spinning blades of the router. This problem caused poor reliability in previous attempts to make a CNC controlled router as the high precision drive components were often adversely affected by debris build-up in belts, tracks and on electrical components. Although scrupulous machine maintenance could mitigate this, in high production run environments, continuous cleaning greatly reduced the time that the machine was online and actively cutting. Blackman and White engineers tackled this problem in two ways. The development of a high-efficiency vacuum manifold that is mounted precisely at the cutting point meant that almost all of the cutting debris was captured immediately it was generated. A high-pressure vacuum system also ensured that even the smallest particles were caught and removed to an off-machine filter system. The accompanying photographs show the router tool head with the vacuum manifold, mounted on our Genesis platform. The vacuum hose is not attached so that the design of the unit can be more clearly seen.

In addition, the router unit itself was sourced from an off-the-shelf machine tool manufacturer. These lightweight units with a long running time and high strength, high density, impact resistant casings, cut down on the moving mass of the cutting head, and meant that the router unit was light enough to be mounted on both our Genesis (as shown in the accompanying photographs) as well as our heavy-duty Mastercut platforms. High rotation speed also meant that the cutting debris was well mascerated, and that no long strings of &ldquoswarf&rdquo built up around the head during extended cutting cycles. This combination met our client&rsquos requirements that the unit be easily maintained, and also did not adversely affect the cutting machine performance if the router unit was not being used on a multi-tool head. The off-the-shelf router is easily replaced from almost any machine tool vendor, and the unit accepts all standard router bits and blades. The mounting system can also be adapted at the factory to utilize many different types of router units. The photograph shows a standard &ldquoBosch&rdquo unit used during the development and testing of the router system.

Do YOU have a custom cutting application that we can help with? Contact Us!