Rubber Extrusion Cutters: Automation for Efficiency and Safety
At Gemini Industrial, we specialize in designing and building custom machines that drive efficiency and enhance safety in manufacturing processes. Our extensive experience spans a wide range of industries, allowing us to partner with companies to identify production bottlenecks, uncover inefficiencies, and implement automated solutions. From initial consultation to final delivery, we work closely with our clients to ensure that the machines we create are tailored to their unique needs, resulting in optimized production and long-term cost savings.
One of our most successful innovations is the rubber extrusion cutter, a machine specifically designed to eliminate manual cutting risks and significantly improve the speed and precision of extrusion manufacturing. Discover how our rubber extrusion cutter transformed production for our clients.
The Challenge: Why Extrusion Companies Seek Out Custom Machines
Extrusion companies typically create their product in long runs, reaching thousands or even tens of thousands of feet. These extruded products, such as weather seals, automotive window seals, or general construction rubber extrusions, often need to be cut to specific lengths and angles.
Many companies still rely on manual cutting processes that are slow, labor intensive, and pose significant safety risks. Typically, the operator lays out, measures, and manually cuts the parts with a razor knife or shears. This is not only time-consuming but creates a potentially hazardous work environment.
Some companies may attempt to streamline this by utilizing a fixture table set to a specific length or including air cylinders with some ability to adjust the manual cutter operation. Despite these improvements, manual cutting remains a time-consuming and risky process.
The Solution: A Custom Rubber Extrusion Cutter From Gemini Industrial
A custom machine from Gemini Industrial fully automates the rubber extrusion cutting process, bringing you immediate manufacturing process improvements. Our years of experience allow us to tailor a machine to your specific production line. Drawing from our past projects, we can quickly help you identify the features that will best suit your needs.
See one of our machines in action on YouTube and explore some of the custom options available:
Recipe System: Quickly set up and run specific parts with saved settings, such as cut length, angle, and quantity.
Length Check Option: Improve quality control and reduce waste with automated inspection, making 100% inspection feasible where manual processes fall short.
Automatic Isolation of Out-of-Spec Parts: Enhance quality control by removing defective parts automatically.
Operator Guarding: Integrated safety features to protect operators from sharp tools and hazards.
Built-In Quantity Tracking: Keep production on target with automated tracking and machine stop once the desired number of parts is cut.
Automatic Speed Regulation: Run the machine either in line with your extrusion process or as an offline operation.
Vision Systems: Perform advanced quality checks for surface defects, imperfections, or color inconsistencies.
The Benefits and ROI Of Custom Automation Machines
With a rubber extrusion cutter, you get increased part consistency, improved overall quality, and enhanced safety. You’ll need drastically less labor to cut extrusions, with employees freed up for other value-added operations. The machine also enables quick, repeatable changeovers.
The combination of reduced labor, faster set-up, and significant scrap reduction often amounts to a payback period as short as 9 months. Here is an example of how one customer calculated their return on investment:
6 hours saved each shift by reducing direct operator labor from 8 hours per shift to 2 hours
0.5 hours saved each shift by reducing changeover from 40 minutes to 10 minutes
An average conservative internal labor rate of $100 per hour means $650 daily savings on a $120,000 purchase
9 months of 5-day work weeks would lead to about $125,000 of savings, already moving past the break-even point of this particular machine
Tailored Solutions for Your Manufacturing Challenges
Whether you're looking to reduce labor costs, enhance workplace safety or increase production throughput, Gemini Industrial has the experience and expertise to deliver a custom solution that meets and exceeds your expectations. Our rubber extrusion cutter is just one of the many machines we can build to address your manufacturing challenges. Contact us to discuss your specific needs and we’ll consult with you to develop the solution.