Investigation into effect of cutting angle on the thermal characteristics in the linear heat cutting of EPS foam

EPS foam의 선형 열선 절단시 절단 경사각의 영향에 관한 연구

During the hotwire cutting of EPS foam sheet, the dimensional accuracy and part quality of the cut par are highly dependent upon the thermal field in the EPS. The thermal field is determined by operating parameters such as heat input, cutting speed and cutting angle. The objective of this study is to investigate into the influence of cutting angle on the kerfwidth and part quality of the cut part in hotwire cutting of EPS foam using the experiments and the numerical analysis in the case of a single sloped cutting. In order to estimate an accurate temperature field, the transient thermal analysis using a moving coordinate system and the sloped heat flux model is carried out. From the results of the experiments and the analysis, it has been found that the effect of cutting angle on the kerfwidth and the melted area at the edge are 0.1 mm and 0.11 m$m^2$ respectively. The results of the experiments show that the surface roughness is not appreciably influenced by the cutting angle.