BLADE RUNNER

Ed Bissell founded Union Grove Saw and Knife, Inc. (Union Grove, NC) in 1983 with a strong desire to become a tool company known for service and quality. Today, with over 300 customers, he is proud to still service and maintain their ten original accounts.

The company?s philosophy of "Advancing the Science of Cutting Tool Technology" led Bissell and his organization to the development of a diverse offering of carbide and stellite tipped circular saws, band saws, steel knife molder heads and carbide bits, as well as a variety of diamond tooling. Union Grove?s customers span both the primary and secondary wood markets in addition to metal cutting plants.

With years of experience in the sawmill industry, Bissell recognized that high quality tooling would actually reduce the overall costs associated with the mills? sawing applications. It was this principle that Bissell brought to Union Grove as he started production on his first saws.

?We started out relatively small and then, as the carbide market grew, we identified opportunities for product development,? he recalls. ?As our relationships grew within certain market niches, we were able to identify specific applications where the new or improved design of a tool could deliver increased value to the customer. We have been fortunate to have our customers understand that even if a particular tool might cost a bit more than a competitive product, our quality and performance significantly reduce the total cost of ownership.?

QUALITY TOOLING REQUIRES QUALITY MACHINE TOOLS
As the new opportunities continued to arise for Union Grove, Bissell recognized the need to arm his skilled staff with fast, flexible and high quality machine tools in order to develop their new products. In late 2005, he was introduced to the Vollmer (Carnegie, PA) line of machines for manufacturing both circular and band saws. It seemed natural for Union Grove to migrate from the primary saw market into the secondary furniture manufacturing market.

?As we got into the band saw market, we saw that we weren?t getting the consistency or the quality of product with our current equipment,? says Bissell. He felt that the market was continuing to produce band saws in the same manner that they had for years. He knew from his own experience that if he could produce a superior quality saw and document its enhanced performance to his customers, they could experience significant productivity growth and cost reductions.

With the introduction of a CA350 into his manufacturing operation, Bissell began to experience the advanced capabilities he wanted to bring to his customers. He explains how their CA350 can handle blade widths from 120 mm to 360 mm. It grinds both the tooth face and tooth top simultaneously in a single set-up to reduce overall cycle times. He also addresses its flexibility. ?It is very easy to change from one job to another, or from one saw application to another because those are programmed into the machine,? says Bissell. ?This is not about an operator looking at a moveable handle or a turn knob. This is not operator judgment. It?s what you program in the machine that makes it very, very consistent.?

Unlike some semi-automatic machines where operator interface in setting machine parameters can result in stock removals that vary up to 0.012 in from saw to saw, the Vollmer can be programmed to consistently provide the optimum sharpness for any given application. Bissell has discovered that his blades can deliver double or triple the overall life of competitive blades because of the dimensional accuracies.

In addition to the CA350, Union Grove also has a stand-alone CA100 that is set up for one tooth shape only and is used for grinding band saws, such as resaws that are all of the same specification. With its cam-driven, wet-grind design, the CA100 produces a surface finish almost equal to that of a CNC-based machine.

The other major sector of Union Grove?s business is the manufacture of carbide-tipped circular saws. Bissell?s forward thinking led him to install an automated line consisting of multiple Vollmer machines, including a CHD270 for top and face grinding and a dual side CHF270 grinder, all serviced by multiple ND robotic loading systems. This production center enables Union Grove to combine high production volumes, rapid changeovers and the repeatable accuracies that make the circular saw business profitable.

Whether band saw or circular saw production, the flexibility of the CNC control is the key to Union Grove?s success. Bissell points out that his operators simply call up a program and know that, no matter what the tooth geometries or configurations, the machine will consistently produce quality saws.

?It gives us the consistent product our customers expect,? continues Bissell. ?Downtime for those customers is very, very expensive, so when operators must stop a machine and make unscheduled saw changes, it gets to be extremely costly ? not only in additional tools but in lost production, decreased quality and increased labor costs. But with these machines, changing programs to accommodate specific applications by job keeps us producing consistent tooling that makes downtime due to tooling issues almost non-existent.?

THE FUTURE OF THE MARKET
Bissell acknowledges that Union Grove?s success has been their ability to explain their value proposition to his customers. He noted that his customers are aware that raw materials are more expensive, production costs are more expensive, and what they have to do is maintain their cut quality. ?We help our customers squeeze every dime out of their operation within tooling areas we are responsible for managing,? noted Bissell, ?and help them get the best value for the money they spend.?

When Union Grove takes on a new customer, they start by picking up existing blades for analysis. Bissell?s experience enables him to review a customer?s entire operation, not just the saws. They will look at the collars, the mounting systems, tool utilization and even how the lumber is being held. ?We try to set ourselves apart just a little bit,? notes Bissell. ?Anybody can be a sharpener. Anybody can buy a piece of equipment and sharpen saws in some shape, form or fashion, but our approach to being tooling managers is where we can add value to a customer?s overall operation.?

Bissell feels his company?s responsibility is to make Union Grove?s cutting tools work the best so his customers can continue to be profitable. He has invested in state-of-the-art equipment that produces the tools he knows will impact his customers? profitability. ?We have seen our saws contribute three, four, even five percent productivity gains,? he concludes. ?That?s a big number for the volume of production and translates into a significant bottom line improvement.?

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Union Grove Saw and Knife, Inc., 157 Sawtooth Lane, Union Grove, NC 28689, 704-539-4442, Fax: 704-539-4860, www.sawandknife.com, ugsk@sawandknife.com.

Vollmer of America Corporation, 105 Broadway Avenue, Carnegie, PA 15106, 412-278-0655, Fax: 412-278-0520, www.vollmer-us.com, info@vollmer-us.com.