Heather Vreeland

Shear slitting is used in applications that require precision cuts. It is more expensive and difficult to set up than other slitting methods and is commonly used to convert heavy films, foils, paper, layered materials, and composites.

Industrial shear slitting requires two blades, a top blade known as the male knife which is either a dish slitter blade or a top flat slitter blade, and the bottom slitter knife, known as the female knife or anvil.

The male knife is adjusted at the cant angle so that the two blades come into contact at the nip point, like a pair of hand scissors, which separates the material.

We're ushering in a new decade and with that comes insightful thoughts about what's to come in the next 10-years. Like many industries, packaging is forecast to change significantly within the coming years. Some the anticipated shifts are the typical, predictable trends “ pricing pressure and squeezing more margin from the end product. But, others are less foreseeable like the impact of technology and e-commerce on buyer behavior. We're dedicating this blog to unwinding some of the trends industry watchdogs have spotted on the horizon to help you understand how your packaging operation may need to adjust resources to maximize productivity and profitability and how a skilled industrial knife expert like American Cutting Edge (ACE) can help.

1. 1. Shifts in Packaging Industry Growth and Focus

It's estimated that the global packaging industry is worth more than $850 billion USD. And, while North America's portion of anticipated growth

Purchasing the right replacement knives and blades for your OEM equipment should be effortless. We've spoken before about how industrial knife manufacturers like ACE can help customers optimize cutting performance. Skilled industrial knife manufacturers can be an excellent resource for supplying the replacement industrial machine knives, razor blades, and wear parts you need.

Today's blog focuses on the meat skinner blades made by ACE vs. those manufactured by the OEM. American Cutting Edge manufactures meat skinning blades are compatible with the largest OEMs in the business including Maja® and Townsend®.

There's much more to your replacement food processing blades than the price you pay for them. Many food processing companies don't stop to think about all the factors that go into their cutting and processing application, instead of focusing purely on choosing a partner based on the lowest cost provider. Some companies don't realize they have a choice when it comes to replacing their knives and blades.

Food processing equipment requires blades with tight tolerances, which means that quality matters more than ever when choosing your supplier. There's no question that the quality of the blade or knife makes all the difference in any cutting operation. It's the ability to maintain a sharp cutting edge and blade stability that can make or break a production facility whether they're processing meat, vegetables, packaging dry goods, or fresh food.

Blade Material “You Have Options

Of particular importance is

Nothing matters more than quality in a slitting operation. Blade and knife holder quality are two obvious critical factors that must be taken into consideration for your line.

To achieve the highest quality and consistency in your slitting operation, your blade and knife changes, as well as knife holder maintenance, must be addressed. We've seen customers who choose to run their knives to the point that their operation's quality and consistency are completely out of spec, says American Cutting Edge product line manager Dana Smith.

Making sure that blades are in the best condition helps ensure optimal performance leading to less downtime for maintenance. When we look at the ease of maintenance and safety, Mario Cotta® knife holders are head and shoulders at the top of the list, continues Smith. We find that Mario Cotta knife holders are the toughest and

You may not realize that there's more you can do to get better performance from your converting blades. Aside from changing out dull blades, there are some simple things you can do to get longer life, higher quality cuts, and improve overall cutting efficiency. Looking beyond the purchase of the knives your converting machine OEM recommends can improve your productivity and positively impact your bottom line.

Pay Attention to Knife Holder Maintenance

If your knives aren't performing up to par, it could be the result of irregular knife holder maintenance. When a knife doesn't fit properly in the holder, inconsistent wear patterns will appear. In addition, it will wear out more quickly, and produce low-quality cuts.

Make sure you're rebuilding knife holders regularly to maintain the highest quality cuts and increase

As a supplier of industrial knives, American Cutting Edge relies on decades of expertise to solve some of the most complex problems facing our customers.

An in-depth understanding of cutting and engineering combined with our hands-on approach provides our customers with all of the benefits of on an on-site engineering team without the overhead.

Here are three stories that demonstrate our ability to bring innovative solutions to our customer's most pressing needs.

If you are not taking care of your customer, your competitor will. “ Bob Hooey

Translating Needs into Specifications

Recently, a large corporation approached American Cutting Edge with a concern.

The knife used to perforate the bags of their food products was rusting. As a result, the company was changing out knives

Quality is everything in a slitting operation. We have talked a lot about blades and material options in our ACE Better Business Blog, but there's definitely more to achieving the perfect cut than those two things.

There's no room for variations in the quality of the cut during the life of your blades. That means the last cut your blades make has to be as good as the first. There's no opportunity to compromise. So what makes a difference between being able to ensure that are no variations in the quality of cut?

Of all of the factors to consider including the skill of your operator and your cutting environment, the quality of any slitting process is the one aspect of your operation that is most directly related to the ability to maintain consistent settings on every single knife holder on the slitting system. This is the only way to obtain the perfect cut.

When reviewing the pneumatic

There's lot of talk about supply chain management (SCM) and how it's critically important to success of a business. Touching every aspect of business operations from logistics and purchasing to information technology, an organization's supply chain and how it's managed can make or break a company.

What exactly is a supply chain and what's so critical about the role it plays in business? Most importantly, why should you care about your vendor's supply chain?

The simple definition of SCM is that it is the handling of the entire production flow of a good or service ” starting from the raw components all the way to delivering the final product to the consumer. Much more than a purchasing and negotiation function, SCM is the design, planning, execution, control, and monitoring of supply chain activities with the goal of creating net value.

Maintaining a sharp blade is essential to optimized shear slitting processes. A sharp blade ensures the highest-quality cuts and lowest dust production. Precision-fit, sharp knives also enable optimum nip point setting to provide the longest blade life.

When shear slitting blades dull, the slitting operation stops while the entire bar is removed and the blades are replaced. Downtime for this type of maintenance can be several hours. Production losses are compounded when the blades dull in the middle of the roll resulting in scrapping the remainder of the material. Selecting an ideal blade material for the application and run-time requirements prevents costly downtime and material losses.

Expert knife manufacturers analyze the material to be cut, current blade selections, run-time requirements, and budgetary needs before recommending the best