The Development of an Automatic Plastic Pipe Cutting Machine for Electrical Cables

Abstract

The development of an automatic plastic pipe-cutting machine for electrical cables is presented in this proposed paper. The goal is to improve and increase efficiency in Thai Arrow Co., Ltd.'s production process by switching from manual to automatic cutting of plastic electrical cable-covered pipes (COT pipes) using a newly developed cutting machine. The operation of the designed automatic plastic pipe-cutting machine is controlled by the PLC, which makes the workpiece extremely precise. It supports the reduction of workpiece errors and contributes to the decrease in employee numbers. The experiment results revealed that workpieces cut with an automatic cutting machine had 4.75 times fewer errors than workpieces cut by hand. The automated cutting machine produced workpieces with an average error of 16.67%, while the average error rate of workpieces cut by company employees was 79.16%. Furthermore, the tolerances of workpieces cut by automatic cutting machines are lower than those cut by company employees. The Automatic cutting machines have a maximum error of only 0.5mm, whereas workpieces cut by company employees have a maximum error of 3mm.