1 Cutting Edge | Rotable Head

Construction of the device:

The cross cutter (also called cross hatch tester or crosshatch cutter) consists of a handle with a cutting tool.  The cutting edge is made up of 6 (or 11) blades.

We suggest changing the cutting edge after about 700 cuts by loosening the cutting tool and changing it to a new one.

The distances between the blades are either 1.0 mm, 1.5 mm, 2.0 mm or 3.0 mm.

Application:

Since there are specific requirements and specific differences throughout the various industries, it is very important to exactly adhere to the customer specifications. Therefore a general application valid for all industries is not possible.

However, generally, the cross-cut test can be described as follows:

First the cross-cutting device is pulled over the test sample to produce a cut. Then another cut is made at a right angle to the first cut. The first cut produces 6 parallel indentations so the second cut produces a grid with 25 squares, the so-called cross section. The cuts need to penetrate the substrate. If the coating is too hard, it is recommended to change to the multi-hatch gauge, because here each cut is made individually using the cutter knife.

Before determining the characteristic value, any existing, loose coating material must be removed by either using a brush, adhesive tape or with compressed air / nitrogen. The standard does not provide any special requirements here.

In the automotive industry, however, it is common to use a defined adhesive tape (e.g. Tesa 4657) to remove the particles. To do this, the adhesive tape is pressed over the scratched area (by firmly rubbing with the fingertip or fingernail) and then peeled off within 0.5 – 1.0 s at an angle of 60 ° if possible. Depending on the customer’s specification this procedure is done twice which increases the requirements on the coating.

The cross-cut parameters according to DIN EN ISO 2409 are used for the evaluation. Generally Gt. 0 and Gt. 1 is acceptable, everything below Gt. 2, is not acceptable.