American Cutting Edge Blog

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) released its Manufacturer's Outlook Survey for the fourth quarter of 2022. It comes as no surprise that one of the main concerns of the manufacturing industry as we work our way into the first quarter of 2023 is potentially demanding economic conditions. With unease regarding inflation, leftover supply chain disruptions from the pandemic, and the workforce shortage, manufacturers' confidence has declined.

Despite a decrease in manufacturers' confidence, there are bright spots in the 2023 outlook. Over 63% of those surveyed see a solid demand for their company's products.

Additionally, manufacturers plan to invest in:

• Capital spending on new equipment and technological investments
• Training for their existing workforce
• Hiring new employees
• R&D
• New buildings and improvements for existing structures

As business leaders move into 2023, three trends stand out as factors that could impact industrial business as we navigate through an uncertain economy.

In annual predictions, there is almost always a mention of the importance of employees and talent retention. In today's workforce, the need to actively manage a strategy for the development and retention of people is more critical than ever. With the tight labor market continuing, recruiting, and retaining the right people continues to be a challenge.

At American Cutting Edge (ACE), our people are the core of our business. And we hire our employees based on our core values. Curiosity and sharing knowledge is important to our organization. We encourage learning and promote an environment that encourages fairness, teamwork, and mutual respect among all colleagues. This mutual respect and fairness then naturally extends to how we treat our customers, shares Director of Human Resources Yolanda Evers.

Recent data from Google Search Trends indicates that demand for warehouse and factory jobs is still climbing. If the number of employees who leave their jobs continues to decrease and demand for manufacturing jobs continues to rise, employers should be able to make a move to reduce overhead costs with more balanced compensation packages. This will help employers gain leverage in employment offer negotiations and help reduce overhead via fairer wages.

Taking into consideration that manufacturing is constantly evolving, it's going to be critical for employers to continue to train new and existing personnel in new and expanded skills to keep up with industry demand. According to Evers, training and planning for our current workforce to expand their understanding of technology is an investment we're more than willing to make. We're constantly looking for ways to develop and attract talent. Finding programs that help us keep ahead of the technology curve as much as possible helps us develop and attract future leaders who will help take ACE to the next level.

The advancement of workforce skills helps employers reduce the skills gap while retaining valuable employees. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives will become increasingly important to get more people involved in the manufacturing sector. To help drive the DEI movement, the U.S. government has released The National Strategy for Advanced Manufacturing to expand and diversify the advanced manufacturing talent pool.

Technology is the Key to the Future

Whether we're talking about Industry 5.0, advanced ERP systems, or technological progress in general, it's clear that there is no escaping the need for more advanced technology in manufacturing. McKinsey research predicts that by 2030, just seven short years from now, the share of physical and manual labor in the economy will have fallen by 27 percent. In its place will be skills that demand more technological and cognitive abilities.

The pelletizing industry is so vast that addressing each possible pelletizer material is nearly impossible. However, most pelletizers fall into a handful of broad categories. Each of these groups has unique pelletizer blade concerns and requirements.

Two Common Types of Pelletizing

Pelletizing falls into one of two types: underwater and strand.

Underwater Pelletizers

Underwater pelletizers require blades that can stand-up to the harsh environments created during the pelletizing process. If the material to be cut is corrosive or acidic, a blade material that is tough, corrosion resistant, and possibly even coated with a wear resistant material may provide the greatest

The balance of maintenance cost versus downtime is the most common question we receive from our industrial cutting customer industrial cutting customer . Maintenance-induced downtime is costly in so many ways. Obviously, when a machine is down for maintenance it is not running production; however, production loss is not the only factor. There is also the cost associated with replacement parts, labor, and maintenance materials.

Evaluating each factor that contributes to maintenance-induced downtime costs allows your business to make optimal decisions. For underwater pelletizing applications that demand maximum up-time, Titanium Carbide (TiC) blades may be an ideal choice. Blades manufactured of Nikro 128 or Nikro 143 provide substantially higher wear and corrosion resistance over

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 that are compatible with the largest OEMs in the business including Maja® and Townsend®.

Independent laboratory testing of ACE brand skinner

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

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

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

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 in

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 check 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