Ultrasonic Resilient Cutting

What is Ultrasonic Cutting?

Ultrasonic technology is a computerized cold cutting technology that can cut most vinyl and linoleum type materials into any two dimensional shape. Linoleum, rubber, some carpets and vinyl are excellent materials for the Ultrasonic process. Ultrasonic cutting is a clear cold process that does not heat or discolor vinyl. The Ultrasonic cutting process does not remove any material during the cutting process. Almost anything that can be drawn on a computer can be cut by Ultrasonic knife technology.

How Does Ultrasonic Cutting Work?

The customer submits a drawing, blueprint, or electronic file. Creative Edge Master Shop then scans, digitizes, or loads the file or drawing with AutoCAD. The customer's drawing is then converted into a language that CEC's Ultrasonic machine can read through a process called CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing). The customer's image is then ready to download onto the Ultrasonic computer

Our Ultrasonic machine has essentially two components: the x-y-z table which moves the cutting head over the material and a large vacuum table. The cutting head contains a laser sharpened knife to carry out the cutting that cycles at 20,000 strokes per second. The movement of this knife is determined by the computer instructions the machine follows (the customer's drawing).  The Ultrasonic cutting does not utilize heat or water to cut the products, this is especially useful for products that would be sensitive to heat or water.

Ultrasonic cutting is an important breakthrough in fabrication methods for both industrial and architectural applications. Ultrasonic knife cutting has significant advantages over competing cutting methods, such as routers, laser cutting and waterjet.

The advantages of this process extend beyond its cost-competitiveness with other cutting techniques. Ultrasonic cutting allows for complex and difficult shapes, such as inside corners, notches, architectural and artistic shapes, to be cut with equal ease and with a high level of accuracy and precision. Because this is a CAD driven process it also offers the capability of repeatability with an advertised repeatability of +/-.001”. Ultrasonic knife is capable of higher speed cutting than most cutting methods with an advertised top speed of 2400” min. It also does not utilize water or any other chemicals that would add moisture to the materials or alter the way that normal adhesives would work with the products. Ultrasonic knife cutting does not remove any materials as it performs the cutting process rather it separates the materials as it cuts resulting if an exceptionally tight fit and clean edges.

The CAD-CAM process and narrow kerf (or cut) resulting from the Ultrasonic process allows for exceptionally efficient usage of expensive materials such as carbon fiber, glass fiber and dry Kevlar. The narrow kerf allows for optimum yield due to nesting (tight tolerances +/- .005 inches depending on the material). In addition the process provides mass production capability with CAD/CAM repeatability. Parts can be manufactured by simply reentering previously run computer programs.

Environmental Considerations

The Ultrasonic cutting process is an environmentally friendly solution to many complex cutting operations. The process is clean, does not create dust, grindings, chips, or chemical air pollution. Ultrasonic eliminates dust and does not generate pollutants and fumes associated with other cutting methods. Cutting oils or emulsions are not needed with this process.