Micro-cutting systems for forming cuts in products

A system for forming a plurality of cuts along a length of a stock material to form a product, comprising:

• a cutting apparatus including a first cutting blade and a second cutting blade, said cutting apparatus including a first spindle motor driving said first cutting blade and a second spindle motor driving said second cutting blade, said cutting apparatus including a first stepper motor moving said first cutting blade along a Y-axis and a second stepper motor moving said second cutting blade along the Y-axis to create a relative gap distance along the Y-axis between said first cutting blade and said second cutting blade, said cutting apparatus including a third motor moving said first cutting member and said second cutting member substantially parallel to a Z-axis to form each pair of cuts among the plurality of cuts, each pair of cuts leaving a resultant beam in the stock material based on the relative gap distance;
• and
• a stock material controller including at least a feed motor configured to hold the stock material for a first pair of cuts among the plurality of cuts and feeding the stock material forward along the X-axis a predetermined distance, and holding the stock material for a second pair of cuts among the plurality of cuts, said stock material controller further including a rotational motor configured to rotate the stock material by a predetermined angle around the X-axis between the first pair of cuts and the second pair of cuts such that the first pair of cuts is offset from the second pair of cuts by the predetermined angle;
• an electronic controller communicatively coupled to the stock material controller controlling operation of the stock material controller to feed the stock material along the X-axis after each pair of cuts has been formed and communicatively coupled to the cutting apparatus controlling operation of the first motor to form each pair of cuts and controlling operation of the first stepper motor and the second stepper motor that control the relative gap distance.

A method of cutting along a length of a stock material to form a product, the method comprising:

• moving the stock material to a first position along an X-axis;
• controlling a relative gap distance along a Y-axis between a first cutting member and a second cutting member;
• moving said first cutting member and said second cutting member along a Z-axis to cut a first pair of cuts in the stock material leaving a first resultant beam in the stock material having a width approximately equal to said relative gap distance;
• moving the stock material to a second position along the X-axis;
• rotating the stock material by a predetermined angle around the X-axis;
• moving said first cutting member and said second cutting member along the Z-axis to cut a second pair of cuts in the stock material leaving a second resultant beam in the stock material, wherein said first pair of cuts is offset from said second pair of cuts by said predetermined angle.