When optimizing materials, it’s important to keep the processing stages and also the final application in mind. Cold rolled steel strip for saw blades is a prime example. This is used, among other applications, as martensitically hardened and tempered steel strip for traditional jigsaws or circular saws. Things become particularly demanding in industrial sawing applications, however, and here Waelzholz Brasmetal supplies this high-quality steel strip in a variety of application-optimized grades. Saw blades for stone gang saws, for example, which are used to cut extremely hard materials such as marble and granite, need to be manufactured from one of these grades. In addition, the raw steel for wood band saw blades used to cut tree trunks is produced in Brazil under the brand name Baukus®.
“Industrial sawing applications place high demands on properties such as the saw blades’ resistance to wear, service life, and dimensional tolerance. Optimum performance can only be achieved through coordinated production across all stages of the value chain,” explains André Sereno, Global Manager Martensitic Steels at Waelzholz. In the case of blades for wood band saws used in industrial applications, for example, steel strips up to 14 meters (551 in) long are welded together to form a circular segment. This saw blade then runs like a belt around two guide rollers (see figure). According to Sereno, “perfect dimensional tolerance is required in this case, because vibrations of the saw blade significantly reduce its service life and increase the loss of the cut material at the kerf.”