Development of a Profile Sample Cutter

Sammanfattning: The pulp- and paper industry is a key industry globally and stands for a production of 600 million tonnes pulp and paper worldwide with a total revenue of 400 billion dollars. Due to high quality requirements on paper, it is important to use instruments that control that the produced paper fulfill the promised requirements. To control the quality, a sample strip needs to be taken along the full length of each paper reel. The purpose of this master’s thesis project was consequently to develop a unit that will be used when cutting out these samples.  The project started with a pre-study on existing sample cutters to define all integrated subsystems and their functionalities, advantages and drawbacks. The essential subsystems were found to be: (1) paper reel cutting, (2) path movement, (3) motion generation and (4) mechanical transmission. The advantages and drawbacks were found by interviewing people who have used the cutters or in any way have encountered them for opinions, experience and knowledge. Sample winding is an additional subsystem which was found in a few of the existing cutters but was not further studied.  After defining were the problems and development potentials lay, a range of concepts were generated for the subsystems. These concepts were presented to a defined target group to ensure a unit which will create costumer value. By taking their views and ideas into account, further concept development was made. After a few iterations, one concept was chosen for each subsystem in an evaluation with domain experts.  A detail study and design were then made which incorporated all subsystems into one unit. The solution: (1) has two rotating circular blade pushed against sharp guide rails, (2) is hand-held with two pair of wheels on the cutter-head and a digital inclinometer, (3) has a manually generated motion and (4) uses a synchronous belt drive which transfer the manually generated motion to the rotating blades. In addition to this, complete 2D and 3D drawings, along with a bill of materials, were delivered for the future manufacturing of the unit.  Since this thesis presents no solution for the sample winding, the next step is to develop a collector which is easily handled and should be able to co-use the manually generated power with the rotating blades. Further, a design which allows modularization of the unit should be developed.