The area in which this system will be placed in the ARC is about 10′ by 10′. For this design to work properly, all of the rollers and cutters must be parallel to each other. To ensure this, the cutter and rollers will be placed on a 80/20 frame instead of mounting it to a table. The base of the frame will be 3′ by 6′ and each roller will be mounted at a different height, which can be seen in Figure 1 below. The frame will be connected using internal connectors and each bar will have at least 2 connections to ensure the frame is sturdy.
Figure 1 Frame Base
To ensure that the fabric is not slipping as it rotating around the roller attached to the rotary encoder, tension must be held on the fabric. This will be accomplished by using a tension system that can be adjusted to increase or decrease the tension of the roller holding the material. The roller attached to the encoder will be attached fixed at the base of this tension system, which can be seen in Figure 2 below. The tension roller will be mounted 1 foot above and can be adjusted to be closer or further away from the roller with the fabric on it. That roller will be mounted 2 feet above the base of the frame so that the fabric has to move in the downward direction as it moves towards the tension system.
Figure 2 Tension System
After the tension system is set, it should not need to be adjusted until a new roll of material is loaded onto the system. Since the ARC will be cutting a variety of materials with different dimensions, the roller that holds the material before it is cut will need to be adjusted depending on the width of the material. For the system to work properly, the material must always be held on the operational side of the table. That is the side that the cutter and encoder outputs can be seen from. This means that the roller will need a lock that can be pushed towards the operational side of the table, holding the material in place. This locking system will need to be adjusted each time a new roll is loaded into the system.
