Automated Wire Cutter

Description

The most difficult and high risk portion of a new product deployment for any startup is manufacturing. Turn key manufacturing is often out of the reach for most projects until a steady state flow is established and sales are driving additional manufacturing runs. I personally have several products that are slated for launch all throughout 2016 and needed a cost effective way to do the following:

1. Prototype wiring harnesses in small batches: This became a challenge as even small pin count wiring harnesses (12 - 14 pins) can mean cutting upwards of 75-100 wires to produce a first batch of test-products.

2. Produce production wiring harnesses in larger batch sizes in case a selected manufacturer does not meet deadlines or quality standards. Murphys law says if it CAN go wrong... it WILL go wrong, and I wanted a tool that I can fall back on to make sure I can at least ship products to urgent customers while waiting for the component manufacturers to catch up.

First test - 20 PCS @ 100mm

Motors were running at 20 volts, will increase voltage and speed to test max speed limit.

Discussions

panderson144 wrote 01/29/2016 at 23:14

I would recommend a Molex 0638170000 autostripper. I use one all the time at work, and it is the only stripper that I have used that does not nick wires and does not immediately birdcage when you pull through the full stroke. I also like that you can set the depth of strip for consistent wiring harnesses.

A tip that I picked up when I was at JPL: The techs would assemble wiring harnesses on an optical breadboard or perfboard (for hanging tools on the wall). They would use pegs pushed into the perforations to set the locations of the bends and connectors. It made lacing the completed harnesses much easier, particularly if you're building a harness with multiple connectors and bends.

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Alex Rich wrote 01/29/2016 at 12:10

Nice project, I know at my day job we spent like $1500 on a machine that does just this (no stripping). Is this guy easy to build with just 3d printed and OTS parts? How do you set length / qty - hard coded?

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Philip Ian Haasnoot wrote 01/29/2016 at 21:16

Thanks Alex! The machines I was looking into for my company (They couldn't strip, they could only "Score" the wire) were coming in at around 5-8k. The prototype is built exclusively from OTS parts, the cutter is actually the cheap $5 ones available at Lowes/Home Depot. The main goal for me is to get the BOM cost under 300 for a full featured cutter, and under 500 for a cutter/stripper setup.

Length/QTY is set through the serial terminal right now, it asks for length in MM and QTY before cutting. I would like to instead have a simple LCD interface so that it can be used without a tethered PC.

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Alex Rich wrote 01/29/2016 at 23:59

Nice, this is cool and meets a common need. We have one of these

http://www.automaticwirecutter.com/

It's a nice machine made by a small company w great support, but it is pricey. We use it for wire and rubber tubing. I like the idea of a hack version but never had the time to make one. Are you open sourcing?

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Jarrett wrote 01/29/2016 at 04:39

Beauty

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zakqwy wrote 01/28/2016 at 12:37

Neat idea--looking forward to hearing about the products you're releasing in 2016.

Any plans for a DIY automated crimp or IDC tool?

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Philip Ian Haasnoot wrote 01/29/2016 at 00:06

Yes to both, this is just phase 1 of the process. The end goal is to have an automated wire cut and strip tool (Ability to set cut and strip length).

Crimping might be a secondary machine.

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Automated Wire Cutter

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