Drives and control system for paper-board cross cutter

Cross cutter for paper or board is a facility that produces sheets of the desired length from a reel of web coming from the paper or board production line. Reliable operation, high speed of the web during cutting, and high accuracy of the sheet dimensions are common requirements. Mechanical assemblies of many existing machines are in good condition, offering possible extension of the service life, provided that drives and control system are modernized. The paper presents the characteristics and requirements of basic subsystems of the paper-board cross cutter from the control system perspective. Drag-link mechanism which provides the variation of the instantaneous speed of the cutter blades, necessary for proper operation of the cutter is described and analyzed. Experimental results obtained on a real, commercial paper-board cross cutter are presented in the paper. The results show that high accuracy of the sheet length can be achieved.