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Purpose: This study attempts to find out the optimum condition of the rotary cutter making pellet in the footwear outsole process. The pellets are used in the process of outsole rubber fabrication to reduce cycle time and save raw material. Methods: Computer simulations are used to analyze the maximum stress in the rotary cutter after designing a variety of cutter shapes. Taguchi method is used to identify the robust condition of the cutter. In L18 orthogonal array, the control factors such as knife width, twisted angle, number of knives, diameter, knife depth and supported angle are considered and noise factors like assembly tolerance and amount of antifriction are allocated. Results: It is found that the most important factors to reduce maximum stress in the cutter are supported angle and diameter. Using Tacuchi’s results, we can reduce 70% cycle time and 9% raw material compared to the traditional method using cutting die. Conclusion: When designing the rotary cutter, the best conditions are the diameter at its maximum allowable value and supported angle in the boundary of machine inner space.
Kwon et al. (Fri,) studied this question.