Effect of wedge blade direction on cutting characteristics of anisotropic polyethylene terephthalate film

Abstract

In this paper, we aim to clarify the effect of cutting direction on the cutting characteristics of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film with mechanical anisotropic properties during the wedge indentation process. In order to reveal the difference in the cutting line force due to the cutting direction, the wedge cutting force on the PET film was experimentally measured by choosing the cutting direction as the machine direction (MD) and the cross machine direction (CD), while the cutting profile of the PET film was observed from the side line direction. From the experiment, the cutting line force of PET film in orthogonal to CD was the larger than the cutting line force of PET film in orthogonal to MD. It was found that there were three deformation modes of the cutting profile and the occurrence frequency of these modes was changed with respect to the cutting direction. In addition, a finite element method (FEM) analysis was carried out to compare the cutting profile and the internal stress state in the sheared zone due to the difference of the cutting direction and the lubrication state. It was clarified that the cutting deformation of the PET film at the necked stage was characterized by the tensile test based mechanical properties and the frictional coefficients with the wedge blade and the underlay.