4) Results - Bolt Cutters

Using the system of kinematic equations above, I constructed two MATLAB functions: one to calculate mechanical advantage and another to calculate velocity. I ran these functions in my main code body, which sweeps the handle angle across its entire range of motion and plots the desired relationships.

The below figures plot the positions of the jaws and the jaw velocity.

While this result on it's own is not especially useful for the operator, it does provide the information needed for the following plots:

Above, the desired results of the kinematic analysis are realized: a relationship between mechanical advantage and both the angle between the handles and the cut material's thickness.

The results show that the mechanical advantage increases as the angle between handles and the material thickness decreases, meaning that while operating the device, cutting through the material gets easier as the operator cuts through more and more of the material. The most difficult portion of the material to shear through (the point in the cutting process with the least mechanical advantage) is the very beginning of the cut.