Tips & Tricks

This is a complicated issue with diverse factors affecting the output quality, but understanding the basic commercial influences at play may help you avoid the worst effects of poor raw material, or at least give you a better idea of why you’re having to cope with them.

With grades and certification bearing the brunt of steel quality control, it’s easy to think that there is no need to worry about quality but this may not always be the case. This is particularly so when global markets are in turmoil from economic pressures (overproduction, international tensions and conflict, etc.) and current geopolitical issues are significantly affecting the certainty of supply around the globe.

This article looks at foundry methods and factors which might influence production volumes, market prices and output quality to provide an insight into what could ultimately affect your steel.

Why are my coldsaw blades breaking?

The term ‘coldsaw blade’ is often applied to more than one type of circular saw blade.  This article refers to coldsaw blades as those which are entirely manufactured from a single piece of solid high speed steel (no carbide tips) which are used for metal cutting on purpose-built slow revolving machinery.

There are a number of reasons for tooth loss and outright blade breakage in metal cutting coldsaw blades, so in this article we’ll detail the main ones we come across. Briefly summarised, these are:

-          Machine gearbox wear

-          Incorrect tooth pitch

-          Incorrect sharpening

-          Blunt blades

-          Material pickup on the side of the blade

-          Angle cutting on round material

-          Insufficient material clamping

-          Blade run-in procedure

-          Feed rates

-          Blade material type

There are lots of reasons a metal cutting bandsaw blade can lose teeth, but for this article we’ll detail the main ones which we find cover perhaps 90% of the situations we come across in the field. Briefly summarised, they are:

- Too many teeth in the cut - Not enough teeth in the cut

- Blade run-in procedure

- Feed rate

- Tooth geometry

Let’s take a deeper dive into each one of these factors:

There are a range of reasons a bimetal bandsaw blade may go blunt prematurely.  In order of commonality, the following are the main factors we see when we’re out and about:

-          Blade speed

-          Coolant concentration

-          Number of teeth in the cut

-          Downfeed rate

-          Tooth geometry vs. material type

-          Foreign material interference

There are a number of reasons for cracking and breakage in metal cutting bimetal bandsaw blades, so in this article we’ll detail the main ones we come across. Briefly summarised, they are:

-        Weld failure

-        Poorly adjusted guides

-        Worn guides

-        Poor guide design

-        Wear & tear

-        Material size vs. machine capacity

-        Blade tooth type

-        Bandsaw wheel alignment & camber angle

-        Band composition & quality

Basic twist drill bits have been around forever, and there’s not much to say about them that hasn’t already been said. But that doesn’t mean it’s understood, certainly not as well or widely as it ought to be. Different workpiece materials will place different demands on the drill bit so, just like all tooling, better understanding of their design will help yield better, more cost-effective results. So let’s start with taking a look at the physical fundamentals that make up a twist drill.

There are a few major reasons why metal cutting bimetal blades can cut on an angle, or a ‘smile’ – the points we’ll go over in this article are:

-        Tension

-        Blade guides

-        Tooth chipping

-        Tooth wear

-        Number of teeth in the cut

Feed rate

Deciding what cutter to choose has evolved into a sometimes-complex topic these days – there are many different cutter options for different purposes and performance levels. This article is designed to shed light on the main different cutter options available.

Training staff to run your mag drills to ensure optimum cutter life and performance has evolved into a sometimes complex topic – but there are a few basics which will make a major difference. This article is designed to shed light on some of those factors.

A bit like tyres, coldsaw blades are pretty much black and round, right?