Sonic Cutter
Portable Hand Cutter for Quick and Easy Fab on the Go
Sonic Cutter: A handy, fast, quiet portable cutting machine that can operate on any size and most prototyping materials, including acrylic, foamboard, and wood. There is no limit to the size of the cut, since you don’t have the vertical or horizontal boundaries of traditional tools. Sonic Cutter is simply hand-held. Due to its small and ergonomic size, Sonic Cutter is hyper-portable and produces little noise. It is safe and healthy to use, because it produces zero fumes and protects you from the blade-cutting area.
Design and fabricate on the fly by outlining your desired cut, scanning the outline, uploading the scan to the cutter’s interface, positioning Sonic Cutter on top of the sheet stock material or project, and applying light force as the blade cuts through the programmed pathway. The end result is a cut done in less time than it takes to deal with your noise-sensitive neighbor. The main components of Sonic Cutter include a servo motor, ultrasonic horn, piezo-electrical ceramics, counter tool, 3D-printed frame, photocell light detector and LED.
When you really need a precise cut, but traditional tools don’t fit around your prototype; When you need to fabricate late at night without teleporting your neighbor straight to your doorstep; When you can’t afford the time and cost of a high-end sound-proof fab lab — All of these are answered by the Sonic Cutter. It is designed to work around the shape of your project, and not the other way around. Sonic Cutter is here to revolutionize the way makers build.
Advisor: Neil Gershenfeld
Collaborator: Honghao Deng