A follow-up control system for flying cut

Flying cut is a typical machining process in many sectors of industry. Flying cut is generally a complex control process because the material is moving when being cut. A complex mechanical structure and a high-performance control system are necessary for accurate cutting, specially in the case of high speed of movement. This paper introduces a novel and simple implementation of tube flying cut, which is viewed as a follow-up control process. By means of a setting and measuring wheel and an optical-electrical coder, the setting value of the cutting length and actual moving length and velocity of the tube are combined to a serial pulse signal, which is then fed to the stepping motor drive circuitry to control the motor when performing flying cut operation. With the help of the setting and measuring wheel, the actual length of the tube segment cut off from the production line can accurately follow the setting length, although the moving velocity of the tube changes. The proposed implementation can work with high speed and high accuracy without accumulated cutting error. Design and calculation of the cutting locus are also presented in the paper.