Did you know:

• Steel products can be recycled repeatedly without loss of strength.
• The steel industry’s largest source of raw material is scrap metal, which is commonly collected by recycling steel.
• Steel’s magnetic properties make it one of the easiest materials to separate from the solid waste stream.
• Almost 69% of all the steel produced in North America each year is recycled – more than paper, aluminum, plastic and glass combined.
• The steel industry has been recycling for over 150 years.

Steel consists of a microstructure of small crystals or “grains”. It is the size, composition and orientation of these “grains” that determines the overall mechanical behavior of the steel. Heat treating is an effective and efficient way to manipulate these “grains” to maximize characteristics such as:

o Cutting edge retention
o Relief of internal stresses
o Blade durability
o Overall blade life

Hyde Industrial Blade Solutions has a variety of heat treating and tempering methods at our disposal, allowing us to match an industrial blade or machine knife to the right process in order to obtain the desired performance.

Plating

Plating describes surface-covering where a metal is deposited on the surface of a machine knife or blade. Plating is commonly used for corrosion inhibition, to harden, to improve wearability and to reduce friction in the cutting process. Two of the more common types of plating used for machine knives are:

Zinc Plating – prevents oxidation by forming a barrier on the surface of the knife. Zinc plating is very economical for applications exposed to atmospheric corrosion.

Electoless Nickel Plating – in this process, a coating of nickel is deposited on the knife. EN plating is used to prevent corrosion and wear. Benefits of EN plating include increased wear resistance, hardness and corrosion protection.

Coatings

Coatings are coverings that are applied to machine knives and blades to improve surface properties such as appearance, corrosion resistance, wear resistance, and scratch resistance. Four common industrial knife coatings are:

Electrocoating – also known as electo deposition, it uses electrical current to deposit paint onto the knife’s surface. Electrocoating provides corrosion resistance and stain resistance, and can improve hardness as well.

Black Oxide Coating – offers mild corrosion resistance and improved lubricity. One of its advantages over other coatings is its minimal buildup.

Teflon Coating – Teflon, or polytetraflouroethylene (PTFE), is used as a non-stick coating in numerous machine knife applications. Hyde IBS uses both standard and food-grade PTFE coatings.

TiN Coating – is often used to improve as edge retention and corrosion resistance. Although not inexpensive, TiN coatings often improve the life of a machine knife by a factor of three or more.

A scallop is a sharpened recessed curve along the blade’s edge. Scallops feature sharp “points” at the leading edge of the cut and offer more linear cutting surface than a standard beveled-edge in the same space.

How do these features improve a blade’s cutting ability?

More Aggressive Cutting Action – Scallops provide single point penetration into the work being cut. The center of effort shifts around each scallop, across a wide range of cut angles to the material being cut, allowing scalloped-edge blades to cut tougher materials more effectively than standard beveled-edge blades.

Longer Blade Life – Scallops improve edge retention because the tips initiate the cut, reducing the force required for the recessed edges of the blade to cut. The points actually protect the sharp inside curves, resulting in the curves wearing more slowly over time. They also increase the cutting edge length by up to 35%.

Scallops come in a variety of configurations, from shallow to deep, short to long, pointed to wavy. We recommend scalloped-edge blades for all your “tough” applications. For help selecting the proper bevel design for your application, contact the blade pros at Hyde Industrial Blade Solutions.

Every manufacturing operation, even those who are faithful followers of Lean, suffer from waste in one form or another. In fact, waste is so counter-productive that the gurus of Lean have identified Seven Wastes:

Transportation – Every time product is moved it stands the risk of being damaged, lost, delayed, etc. Add to that the cost of “no added value” and you can easily see that unnecessary transportation does not add value.

Inventory – Raw materials, work-in-progress and finished goods inventories represent a capital outlay that has not yet produced value, either for the producer or the ultimate customer. If you have inventory that is not being actively processed, you’ve got waste.

Motion – Motion refers to the movements of your employees or equipment. Motion leads to wear and can also cause damage, and may be a safety issue. Reducing motion strictly to only that which is required eliminates waste and frees up time and resources for other value added activities.

Waiting – Whenever goods are not in transport or being processed, they are waiting. In traditional processes, a large part of an individual product’s life is spent waiting to be worked on.

Overproduction – When more product is produced than is required by your customers, you’ve got overproduction. The key practice leading to this condition is the production of large batches. This in turn leads to excess inventory (which consumes money and space), which is another waste!

Over-processing – Over-processing occurs any time more work is done on a piece than is required by the customer, such as wrapping product in oil paper so it won’t rust while it sits in queue as WIP (over-processing and inventory!). Over-processing can also mean using tools or equipment that are more precise or complex than required.

Defects – Whenever defects occur, extra costs are incurred reworking the part, rescheduling production and calming down upset customers. Make it right the first time!

An easy way to remember the 7 wastes is by remembering our old friend, TIM WOOD:

T – Transportation
I – Inventory
M – Motion
W – Wait
O – Overproduction
O – Over-processing
D – Defect

If you can eliminate, or at least reduce, any of these wastes in your operation, you’ll enjoy more efficiency, more productivity and, ultimately, more profitability!

A bevel serves two purposes.  First, it creates a strong, durable and reliable cutting edge, providing the tool with a sharp edge – it allows the tool to penetrate the material.   Second, it minimizes material deformation during the cut - it lets the tool cut without destroying the material.

The bevel is the transition point between the main body of the tool and the outermost point of its cutting edge.  It’s also the area of compromise between the qualities of strength and penetration. 

There is a direct correlation between a blade’s strength or durability and its penetration or ability to cut – as one property increases, the other decreases.  The trade-off is due to the fact that penetration is gained by removing more of the tool’s base material, thus reducing its strength and durability.  Although  typically we want a blade to last as long as possible, certain applications require more penetration in order to achieve the desired result.

The bevel angle, or bevel length, determines what materials the tool can cut and how the tool can be used.  The greater the bevel angle, the steeper and shorter the bevel.  A greater angle means more cutting strength on the edge, and the stronger the edge, the harder a material you can cut. 

There are three basic types of bevel configuration:

• Square Edge – no bevel – the cut is a square-edge cut – this type of edge actually creates a “shear fracture” of the material rather than a cut (i.e. metal shear blades)
• Single Bevel – beveled on one side only – the cut is half square-edge and  half vee-cut
• Double Bevel – beveled on both sides of the blade – the cut is a full vee-cut    

Single bevel blades are better suited for heavier materials and slower speeds.  Single bevel blades are often found in trim-type applications, where a clean, finished edge is desired   after the cut.  Double bevel blades are better suited for  medium to lighter materials and faster speeds, and are the most common design in use today for almost all industrial   slitting markets.

As 2010 winds down, we’re all breathing a little bit easier about where we are vis-a-vis how 2009 ended for our companies.  Yes, business is better … much better!  That said, most of us are still not back to pre-2009 sales levels.  So, how do we get there in the shortest possible time?  How can we forecast strong levels of business again?  Quite simply, by creating our futures! 

Think about it.  Will you or your boss be happy with 2% or 4% growth in 2011?  Will that get your sales back to pre-2009 levels?  If the answer to either question is “no” (and it should be “no”), then you have to be bold, you have to stretch a little, and you have to realize that you have the power to create your own future!  Are you looking for something more like 10% growth?  How about 20%?  Impossible?  Absolutely not – but it won’t come easy, and to attain it, you must have some planning in place.  You have to have the means to create the future state you’re forecasting, or predicting.

We have a very ambitious goal here at Hyde Industrial Blade Solutions that keeps us moving forward – to double our 2008 sales level by the end of 2014.  Even if 2009 hadn’t happened, that would require 12.5% growth for 6 years straight – a pretty solid accomplishment.  Well, of course, 2009 did happen, so the real growth required is certainly higher than that. 

But we have a plan in place, a process in place.  We’re working on new product development, product line expansion, new markets and new methods.  All of these are quantifiable and all, with a little luck and a lot of hard work, will translate into numbers – sales dollars and growth percentages.  We are effectively creating the future that we have predicted.  And yes, our 2010 results are substantially higher than most companies have achieved this year, so we know we’re on the right track!

With 2011 right around the corner, take some time over the next few weeks to envision the future you want for yourself, your company.  Then take some time to jot down the different things you can do to make that vision a reality (and be bold – push yourself - step out of your comfort zone).  You will then be well on your way to developing a plan and charting your course … turning your predicted future into reality!

When a blade is re-sharpened, concentration should be focused primarily on the honed edge.  The honed edge is the area located just in from the periphery of the blade.  This portion of the blade is generally very small, measuring 1/16” or less.

Maintaining Proper Edge Geometry – During the re-sharpening process, blades should be held at 90° to a pair of offset grinding wheels and run against the two wheels – this is called “re-honing”.  By focusing on the honed edge (rather than the beveled edge), very little stock removal is required to return the blade’s edge to its original factory condition.  Following this guideline will extend significantly the useful life of your machine blade.

Proper Fixturing – The use of proper fixturing will ensure the blade is secured at 90° to the grinding wheels.  Any   positional variation during re-honing will result in an edge that is wider on one side than the other, and also produce an edge that is out of alignment with the knife’s centerline axis.  This will cause the blade to oscillate, or wobble, in use and reduce cut quality.  Inconsistent edge geometry will also physically weaken the blade edge and contribute to edge cracking and flaking.

Coolant Use – Coolant is also a key ingredient in the re-sharpening process.  Coolant helps dissipate the heat that is caused by the friction produced during the grinding process.  Without coolant, the heat generated during this process can alter the molecular structure of the steel producing a blade with a work-hardened edge.  Work-hardening will make the blade’s edge brittle, and brittle edges are prone to cracking, chipping and flaking during use.

Using re-sharpened blades with edges in optimal condition improves cut quality and yield, while also reducing down time.  Following these steps will maximize your blade investment and improve your operational efficiency.

In honor of Hyde’s 135th anniversary, we’re having a little fun trying to track down the most unusual applications for which our blades are used.  We’re encouraging our customers to join us in celebrating our anniversary by participating in the Hyde Industrial Blade Solutions’ “What’s Your App? 135^th Anniversary Big Blade Blast!”

Simply tell us how you’re using our blades.  Whether you’re slitting, trimming, sheeting, skiving, shaping, portioning, slicing, dicing, skinning, snipping, chopping, or cutting to length, we want to hear what you’re doing.  Tell us how you use our blades and you’ll be entered in a drawing to win 1 of 10 $135 American Express^® Gift Cards.

You can describe your applications and enter the contest on-line at www.hydeblades.com/entryform.php .  Your submission will be included in a random drawing announcing the winners to be held on December 10, 2010.  We look forward to hearing how you use our blades!

Now for the legal stuff … The contest runs from August 1, 2010 through December 6, 2010. Entries must be received at Hyde Tools, Inc. by midnight on December 6, 2010. One entry per person. All submissions become the property of Hyde Tools, Inc. Ten (10) winners will be drawn at random for entries submitted on-line or via mail on December 10, 2010. Decision of the judges is final.

Circular blades are used to perform all sorts of operations.  Typically we think of circular blades as slitter blades – blades used to process jumbo rolls of paper, for example, into smaller rolls and/or sheets of finished product.  But circular blades are capable of so much more – slitting, slicing, skiving, core cutting, slabbing, splitting, shaping, portioning, chopping, cut-off, and many, many other operations. 

One of my personal favorite applications is the use of circular blades in making granola bars, cutting the sheets of bar material into the right widths, then they’re further cut to length with straight blades, then finally wrapped for sale.  Who would have thought?

If you’re using circular blades for cloth, paper, plastic, leather, rubber, metal, cardboard, foam, vinyl, film, foil or composite material, Hyde Industrial Blade Solutions can make the right knife for your application.  With over 100 years of circular knife experience behind us, we have the skill and background to get you the right knife for your application.