Onthesharpnessofstraightedgebladesincuttingsoft.PDFVIP

Engineering Fracture Mechanics 74 (2007) 2205–2224 /locate/engfracmech On the sharpness of straight edge blades in cutting soft solids: Part I – indentation experiments C.T. McCarthy 1, M. Hussey, M.D. Gilchrist * School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland Received 6 June 2006; received in revised form 4 October 2006; accepted 19 October 2006 Available online 5 December 2006 Abstract The sharpness of a blade is a key parameter in cutting soft solids, such as biological tissues, foodstuffs or elastomeric materials. It has a first order effect on the effort, and hence energy needed to cut, the quality of the cut surface and the life of the cutting instrument. To date, there is no standard definition, measurement or protocol to quantify blade sharpness. This paper derives a quantitative index of blade sharpness via indentation experiments in which elastomeric materials are cut using both sharp and blunt straight edge blades. It is found that the depth of blade indentation required to initiate a cut or crack in the target material is a function of the condition or sharpness of the blade’s cutting edge, and this property is used to formulate a so-called ‘‘blade sharpness index’’ (BSI). It is shown theoretically that this index is zero for an infinitely sharp blade and increases in a quadratic manner for increasing bluntness. For the blades tested herein, the sharpness index was found to vary between 0.2 for sharp blades and 0.5 for blunt blades, respectively. To examine the suitability of the index in other cutting configurations, experiments are performed using different blade types, target m