PILOT DEVICE FOR A SUSPENDED KNIFE OF A CUTTING MACHINE FOR CUTTING SHEET MATERIAL

摘要

Pilot device for a suspended cutting knife of a cutting head of an automatically controlled cutting machine for cutting fabric sheet material spread out on a cutting table in multiple layers, which cutting head being controlled according to a three-dimensional coordinate system by means for moving the cutting head along the X- and Y- axis and pivoting about the Z-axis for moving the knife tangently along a predetermined cutting path during cutting of said material, said cutting knife is mounted reciprocally movable along said Z-axis, said cutting head further comprises guiding means for guiding the unsuspended part of the cutting knife in the cutting head and a presserure foot rigidly connected to the pivotable cutting head. The suspended end of the knife (10) is mounted in the cutting head freely rotatable around the Z-axis, and the guiding means arranged adjacent to the free end of the knife comprising a socket (53) rigidly connected to the cutting head having a support (60) being freely rotatable mounted in said socket (53) around a vertical axis (6) located in front and adjacent to the cutting edge (11) of said cutting knife and parallel in a predetermined distance to the Z-axis (5) of the coordinate system. Said support (60) having a slot (61) surrounding the flanks (12, 13) of the knife (1), which slot (61) is excentrically positioned to said vertical axis (6) and extends to the trailing edge (12) of the knife and comprising sensor means (58) for detecting the instantaneous rotation angle and/or its direction of the support relative to the socket (53) and providing correcting signals for controlling the movement of the knife (10) about the Z-axis to regulate the cutting of the material by the knife along the predetermined cutting path in response to the detected rotation angle;