American Cutting Edge Blog

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

When it comes time to change your wood chipper blades, there are a few things tree care professionals need to take into consideration. There's more to consider as your blades begin to wear than just popping on a new set.

After many conversations with our customers, our team has rounded up the topics that come up when it's time for a blade change.

Life of the Blades “ How many hours of service have you run on the current set of blades? It's beneficial to keep track of the run time for your chipper knives so you can understand if you're getting enough time out of them. Many of our customers keep a log for each machine in service to record not only the number of hours the blades are in use but also the materials being cut and environmental conditions.

Like fir and western red cedar, softwoods cause less wear and tear on blades. Harder woods and fibrous materials, such as pine and

There are many factors that influence the performance of your wood chipper blades. These range from the material you're chipping to weather and your routine maintenance schedule. It's a well-known fact that hardwoods like red oak and fibrous materials like palm trees can take a heavy toll on blades, making them wear out quickly. Rocks, nails, and fence posts can also decrease the life of your chipper knives in a hurry.

Follow the OEM recommendation for blade maintenance and change for your wood chipper. It doesn't hurt to track the hours between blade changes and the types of wood you're running through your chipper to make sure that you're keeping up with knife changes. This type of historical information helps keep tree care professionals prepared to avoid unpleasant surprises when it comes to the condition of their blades.

Dull Blades “ Know the Signs

Even with tracking chipper runtime and materials, awareness of the warning signs

Global production of fiber has soared over the last half-century. When we consider that production has quadrupled over the last fifty years, it's difficult to imagine that there could be any greater increase. However, the market anticipates another 43% increase in just the next eight years. To put this into perspective, this increase translates to a production per capita of almost 37 and a half pounds of fiber produced per person. That's a lot of fiber!

With tremendous production comes the potential for great amounts of waste. We commonly think about closed-loop recycling in relationship to the plastics industry and the recycling of bottles, packaging, and other items.

Packaging food for preservation and future use is far from a modern-day innovation. While studying ancient Egypt, historians have found evidence of food packaging that dates as far back as 3,500 years ago. As society has advanced, packaging has continued to evolve to meet the ever-changing needs of society including food safety and product stability.

Over the last two years, the packaging industry has been forced to think out of the box and pivot its operations quickly due to the global pandemic. With no immediate end in sight, it goes without saying that this trend to be flexible and think outside the box will be ongoing as will the need for improved cutting applications.

Some of the trends we're focusing on for this blog aren't new but have been building momentum over time.

Sustainability

As knowledge and awareness

Most people don't associate industrial knives and blades with automotive glass. However, as with most products, industrial knives, and blades play an important role in manufacturing.

Automotive glass starts out as float glass and is transformed into what is known as laminated glass. Float glass is named after the manufacturing process used to create it. The raw materials literally float inside a chamber during part of the process. Since 1937, vehicle windshields have been required to be made from laminated glass for safety reasons.

Laminated glass, also known as sandwich glass, is made up of two pieces of float glass with a plastic layer

No matter which brand of wood chipper you use in your tree care business, eventually you're going to need to replace your blades. The question we receive most often is, How often do I need to change my blades? And the answer is it depends. It all depends on what you're running through your chipper. Harder woods like oak are going to wear out your blades faster as are the things that may go into your wood chipper on a job that shouldn't.

There are some tell-tale signs that you should look at your blades. Are you seeing irregular wood chips? Dull wood chipper blades shred and pull wood apart rather than cutting it. This creates poor-quality wood chips and regrinds.

This type of action puts more stress on the wood chipper engine, causing it to need more energy to force the blade through the wood. When more energy is needed to drive the engine, the chipper

In today's advanced manufacturing world, plastics are used to produce everything from lawn furniture and automobile dashboards to medical tubing, computers, and children's toys such as Legos. Plastic molding (sometimes spelled moulding) is the process of pouring liquid plastic into a hollow form so that it hardens into that shape when it cools.

There are a variety of different plastic molding processes. The type of molding process put into use depends on the product being manufactured. Regardless of which type of plastic molding process is in use, there are cutting requirements at various points whether it's the pelletizing of virgin material to make plastic pellets, trimming the excess plastic from a finished part, or plastic recycling knives at the end of the line to granulate excess material so it can be used at the beginning of the process.

The following are considered some of the most effective forms of plastic molding manufacturing.

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