INTERNATIONAL APPLICATION SUCCESS-OPTIMIZED CUTTING PROCESSES
Bandsaw blade strategy helps French firm grow business by more than 50% over the last five to eight years.
Posted: December 31, 2019
Daniel Caprio has more than 15 years of experience in custom cutting and machining. His company, Cap Coupes Services in north-central France, does custom sawing, prepares and machines test pieces, and provides metallurgical expertise for customers in the aeronautics, aerospace, nuclear, medical, and petroleum industries.
“We have very sophisticated customers with high time, cost, quality, and tolerance requirements,” he says. As a result, he places a premium on finding full-service partners that can help him optimize cutting operations on materials such as titanium, Inconel, and super-duplex stainless steel. After extensive testing under actual manufacturing conditions and cost/benefit analyses, his firm is using two off-the-shelf and one custom bandsaw blade made by Wikus Saw Technology Corp. (Addison, IL).
Taurus is an inexpensive carbide-tipped trapezoid-tooth blade for basic sawing applications. It’s suitable for solid materials, including all steels and non-ferrous metals, and can be used on machines without a carbide package. Good surface quality ensures that only minor reworking is necessary.
With a tensile strength of up to 1000 N/mm², Skalar Premium M42 can be used for all metals and is suitable for continuous operation in large sawing applications. The tooth edge has a special coating that, combined with a back-edge coating, reduces friction. This in turn extends blade life by reducing vibration.
As part of the collaboration, a customized bandsaw blade was developed with a special tooth pitch for a band width of 2-5/8 in (67 mm) for specific applications. Tooth pitch was selected based on contact length of the blade in the workpiece and material.
In addition to comprehensive consultation, Wikus support included training sessions that introducd the new blades and familiarized employees with correct handling. This service contributes to significant cost savings by ensuring blades achieve optimum cutting results.
Additional improvements were made thanks to Wikus’ free blade-selection app. After users select material, diameter, application (solid, tube, beam, single or layer cut), bandsaw brand and model, ParaMaster 4.0 recommends blade type, tooth pitch, feed speed, and cutting rate. Entering additional variables, such as hourly production cost rates and blade life, enables users to calculate production costs. The program allows the user to compare multiple parameter scenarios to lower costs by optimizing machine and blade settings.
“Wikus bandsaw blades help us maintain high productivity and short delivery periods,” says Caprio. “The company’s technical support and ParaMaster 4.0 software, which we use to optimize our cutting parameters, are crucial to our success.”
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