What are the Types of Electric Hot Knife?

An electric hot knife refers to a hand-held knife that uses electric energy to generate heat to achieve cutting. There are mainly two electric knives with different principles on the market. A relatively simple method is to install an electric heating wire inside the knife to generate heat after being energized. The advantages of this electric hot knife are low price, low cost, and simple structure. The disadvantage is that the blade is relatively thick and the preheating is slow, so it can only be used to cut foam products.

The other is a hand-held electric hot knife that uses the resistance of the blade to generate heat through a large current. The preheating time of this hot knife foam cutter  is very short, and the blade can reach the red state in only a few seconds, and the efficiency is high. The advantages of this electric hot knife are fast preheating, high efficiency (directly use the blade to heat, low loss), fast speed, and changeable shape. Different power blades can be selected according to different applications. It has a wide range of applications and can be used for cutting. Low melting point products such as foam, sponge, plastic, chemical fiber cloth, non-woven cloth, filter cloth, plastic rope, rubber, telescopic woven mesh tube, etc.

Nowadays, there are three types of commonly used electric hot knives foam cutter: transformer type, electronic type and desktop type.

Features of transformer type

The transformer-type electric hot knife is equipped with high current and low voltage, so as to realize the blade heating, and has the following 8 purposes:

1. Cut foam and sponge within 4 cm thickness, with smooth fracture
2. Cutting woven rubber sheet, foam rubber sheet, rubber sheet and rubber rod
3. Cut the tubular webbing
4. Cut thin chemical fiber cloth (such as curtain cloth, advertising cloth, white painting, etc.)
5. Cutting chemical fiber carpet; cutting thin plastic wall
6. Cut off the corners of office furniture decoration fabrics (such as screen fabrics)
7. Remove grease or organic stains on the surface of the tile
8. Remove the gate (nozzle) material of the plastic workpiece, etc.

Features of electronic type

The electric hot knife has an electronic regulating circuit and a high-frequency transformer, which can output low voltage and high current to realize the blade heating. It has the characteristics of high efficiency and energy saving. There are three uses:

1. Easily cut 250mm thick EPS, EPE and XPS foam boards, with smooth fracture and no debris.
2. With the slotted slide plate, various shapes of slots can be easily opened on the foam plate.
3. Suitable for foam sculpture.

Features of desktop type

The desktop hot knife foam cutter is to place the machine on the table and hold the workpiece to cut. The feature is that the blade is front-mounted, the operator does not need to raise his arms, long-term work, greatly reducing labor intensity. There are five uses:

1. Cutting cable (nylon, PP), cutting braided belt, braided net tube.
2. Fusion welding of chemical fiber rope strap joints.
3. Easily cut foam, vertical cutting, bevel cutting.
4. Cylindrical cutting, conical cutting.
5. Suitable for construction and packaging industries.

Specific operations are as follows:

1. Use a fiber stripper to remove the coating of the surface layer, reserve about 30-40mm, and wrap the optical fiber with a dust-free paper dipped in alcohol.
2. Then wipe the optical fiber clean.
3. Finally, put it into the fiber-carrying slot and cut the fiber.

  Note: Be very careful about the fiber section after cutting, do not touch any objects, otherwise, the cutting effect will be affected.

Regular maintenance

1. If there is continuous fiber cutting, the height of the blade can be adjusted.
2. If the cut end surface is not flat, clean the rubber pad of the cutting knife first. If the problem is not solved, replace the knife surface.