Converting

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.

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

The critical importance of reducing the amount of waste in landfills is more prevalent than ever. As environmental concerns increase, granulating operations globally are growing in number and looking for ways to maximize efficiency by increasing output and reducing costs.

How granulator knives fit and how sharp they are have a significant impact on the efficiency of any granulating operation. Well-maintained knives reduce dust and fine-free, uniform regrinds. Dull blades do the opposite and produce regrinds of various sizes with dust and fines. Granulator blades that are not well-maintained can cause premature wearing of the knives and can make setting the desired gap impossible.

The Gap

The gap between

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

In the past six decades, since the mass production of plastics began, the global production of plastics has increased rapidly resulting in the development of 8.3 billion metric tons of plastics. Since plastics take more than 400 years to degrade, plastics recycling programs are essential to ensure both the health of our planet and the health of the plastics industry.

Recycling plastics keeps the product out of landfills and oceans; however, we need to recycle more. According to Science Advances, 79 percent of the plastic produced in the previous 60 years is accumulating in landfills or resting as litter.

Why is recycling plastics so important?

At some point,the United

When the life of your granulating blade is optimized, your entire granulating process is improved. Your production lines experience less downtime, your output is consistent and reliable, and your work environment is safer and more efficient.

Utilizing a precision granulator knife sharpener, establishing an appropriate feed rate, and accurately setting the gap between your granulator blades ensures the highest possible efficiency from your operation.

Pride, precision, and perfect product. “ Tom Buchanan

Precision Sharpening Your Granulator Blades

Granulating requires precision blades. To properly maintain your knives and achieve optimum life and performance, blades must be professionally sharpened by a vendor with precision grinding experience. Many vendors claim to offer granulator

The cutting chamber of a granulator is where the most critical processes occur. It also contains the most essential replacement parts on your granulator, your knives. When the cutting edge of a granulator knife fails, the machine must use more energy cut. A failed knife edge also increases dust and fines, leads to poor regrind quality, and prevents the ability to produce uniform particle-size.

By concentrating on precision, one arrives at technique, but by concentrating on technique, one does not arrive at precision. “ Bruno Walter

A Balance of Toughness and Wear Resistance

The most common reason for premature granulator blade failure is improper blade selection. D2 steel hardened up to 59HRC Rockwell is commonly used to manufacture these knives and is appropriate for many applications. However, since every granulating operation is unique, it is imperative that processors evaluate their blade

As a vital step in many production processes, granulating reduces materials, such as plastics, metals, and films so that it can be repurposed into other products. As the importance of reducing the amount of waste that enters landfills becomes more evident, granulating operations are increasing and facilities are looking for ways to improve efficiency and output.

Granulators with well-fit, sharp knives produce regrinds of a uniform size that are free from dust and fines while dull, ill-fitting blades do just the opposite, producing regrinds of various sizes that are peppered with dust and fines. Ill-fitting granulator blades also cause premature wearing of the knives and make it more difficult to accurately set the gap.

The gap between the rotor knife and the bed knife must be set based on the widest knife in the machine. When knives are not uniformly sized, gap increases cause inefficiencies. For example,

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