Wasn’t sure this would work but we printed a 1mm tall die cutter with edges sharp enough to cut closed cell foam. Using bench press to collapse the foam and cut it cleanly with the 1mm tall edges. So far we’ve gotten about 4 good cuts before the edges break, but that is 4 more than I thought we would get.
Great proof of concept. Getting ready to make a steel one for production.
What’s on the other side of the foam from the die? if you are pressing against a steel mandrill, the die might last longer if you used something that was compliant but a higher durometer than the foam. Like a sheet of hard rubber, or a piece of leather. Something with a little “squish” to it.
This is a very cool idea. One I will add to my library of cool ideas.
My first try was using a pice of ru ber under the foam, but it was too squishy, so went to the steel mandrel. We may be able to find something just a bit softer than the cutter? Maybe one of the other Engineering resins, tough 3000.maybe.