Hi. I was wondering if anyone had any good ideas on how to easily cut dry carbon fibre preforms manufactured with NCF. Max. thickness would be 0.2". We currently use 5-axis ultrasonic cutters in production, but i was looking for something handheld, which leaves a clean cut with as little fibre pull out as possible. Our only alternative at the minute is a stanley knife, and the blade blunts very quickly.
Depending on your work table, a sharp roller cutter has always worked for me. I’m SUUUURE there are some hand held power cutters that would work. I think they use rotating blades as well.
Can’t think of the big company out there…ugh.
Ohaus? Or something like that…
dry cf preforms… i claim ignorance.
What is it? are you speaking of cutting prepreg to shape before it goes into the mold? .2" thick! that is some thick material.
It is non crimp dry fabric with a thermoplastic powder binder on one side of the material. It is cut to certain ply dimensions and then stacked to a certain thickness. Each ply would be 0.020" thick. Once it is layed up it placed in a preforming unit were the stack is pulled down under a rubber diaphragm and all air is evacuated. Infra-red bulbs then produce heat to make the powder binder tacky and stick the plies together in a desired shape/form depending on the tool they are layed up on. The stack is then trimmed and placed into a cure tool where it will then be infused with resin.
Trimming the ply stack tends to be difficult with lots of fibre pull out, which can then make the resin track slightly uneven. Roller cutters would tend to damage the tooling. Trimming is done after every preform cycle (i.e. every 10 plies- 0.2")and final thickness can be anywhere near 1.2".
Thanks for the tutorial 
Does “non crimp” mean the fabric is not woven?
yes. The tows are laid out, and then the stack (ie: 0/-45/45/90) is stitched with thread to keep it stable.
http://www.saertex.com/index.cfm?27DD662C2B3E9DFD27693B4960BA7279