Lectra, the world leader in integrated technology solutions for industries using fabrics, leather, technical textiles and composite materials, has taken on the challenges of man-made materials faced by suppliers with an all-new Vector fabric-cutting solution. The company’s VectorAuto iX6 has been specially designed to cut synthetics with an ultra-precision cutting head to produce perfectly cut parts for interior and seat components, optimizing the cost per cut part. The new cutter increases cutting capacity by 20 per cent or more compared to models currently available on the market. The increase in productivity is achieved by minimising the risk of layers fusing, which enables a greater number of plies to be cut.
By optimizing the marker to reduce spacing between parts, the new solution also enables potential material gains of up to 3 per cent that can save hundreds of thousands of dollars per year per cutting line. Japanese vehicle-seating cut parts supplier Ark has already achieved increased production volume since its recent acquisition of the new cutter.
However, newly developed synthetic materials used in components like headrests and arm rests, present a wide range of challenges. The shapes required to produce increasingly sophisticated seat designs are gradually becoming more complex. The technical limitations of fabric cutters restrict the number of plies that can be cut due to the risk of fusion. Additionally, the extra spacing necessary to achieve small, intricate parts can result in material losses and low cutter productivity. Lectra’s newest Vector model has been designed to efficiently overcome the complexities involved in cutting imitation materials and also benefits from the advanced technology, such as predictive maintenance, which ensures a high machine availability rate of up to 98 per cent and Eclipse, Lectra’s patented continuous cutting functionality.
