By: Willy Goellner, Chairman & Founder—Advanced Machine & Engineering/AMSAW

Customers’ requirements for shorter deliveries and lower quantities put tremendous pressure on production planners in forging shops. Hammers and presses can quickly adapt to changes in open-die forging, but problems can develop in the saw department. Large billets take time to cut, especially with a bandsaw. If you crank the speed and feedrate, then you risk reducing the tool life. Carbide-tipped blades guarantee longer tool life and faster cutting rates.

New Blade Geometries and Tooth Materials

Carbide sawing became popular in forging shops around the 1970s. Many shops were forced to switch to bandsaws due to the increased purchasing and cutting costs of the newer machines that were heavier and required circular saw blades. Circular carbide sawing thus lost its original glamor -- at least for short-term planning.

The bandsaw competition forced carbide saw and blade manufacturers to develop new blade geometries and tooth materials. Tip materials, such as coated carbides and cermets, increased the tool life of carbide blades and allowed them to compete against bandsaws -- especially when thinner blades of circular saws took the wind out of the sails on kerf loss. Machine costs were also lowered as a result of the Asian competition, forcing saw builders to develop less expensive machine structures.

MetalCut, which is part of the AMSAW product line, developed several carbide saws between 1969 and 2010 that featured billet sizes from 25 mm (1.0”) to 500 mm (20.0”). The heavy-duty carbide-tipped blade is driven by a pivoting saw head and cuts on a circular path. The pivoting head swivels on oversized, heavy preloaded taper roller bearings.

Carbide-Tipped Blades Increase Cutting Rates, Lower Costs

This particular design provides high stiffness for a relatively simple cutting arrangement, which is less costly than any slide head saw that features linear ways or box ways.

Pivot saws that use coated carbide-tipped blades provide higher cutting rates at lower costs. This is important for forging shops and operations that require fast and economical cutting rates.

Companies can benefit from carbide-tipped saw blades, because they cut faster and allow for flexible operations. The higher cutting costs that result from lower tool life are usually absorbed by the higher profit from shorter delivery.

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