Proper blade maintenance keeps your operations running smoothly. Dull blades don’t cut as precisely. They can also impact the machine’s tension stability, which causes uneven cuts. Sharpening slitter blades regularly improves accuracy, generates less dust, causes less friction-induced heat, and helps keep a machine from wearing out too quickly.
Dulled blades waste more material because the cuts can be inaccurate. As a blade dulls, your machine requires more force to make the same cuts, which increases friction, heat, and machine wear. To keep your machines up and running with precision, your maintenance team should know how often to sharpen slitter blades and how to do it without impacting blade quality.
Your slitter blades perform differently on diverse materials. Each comes with its own properties that affect ideal sharpness. For example, you would need razor-sharp edges for cleaner cuts of thin plastic film, while you would need a more robust blade to cut abrasive plastics or laminates. Because of this, blade dulling impacts materials differently, such as:
Dull blades can cause width drift with any material, meaning the blade drifts from its set line. All these issues lead to rework and material waste. Thankfully, you can avoid them with regular blade sharpening.
It’s tempting to compare sharpening providers and choose based on price. But proper circular blade sharpening and straight blade sharpening require expertise.
Sharpening produces burrs, small raised ridges that form during grinding. Experienced blade maintenance professionals understand how to control these burrs and remove them for like-new performance. They also understand how to finish your blades to work with each specific material.
A reputable shaping provider like Hyde, with 150 years of engineering expertise, provides services that focus on these important areas:
Depending on particular slitter blade use cases, your blades can wear out at different rates. It’s good to schedule regular sharpening, but you might need it before your regular maintenance window. Look for these signs:
Multiple factors impact your sharpening schedule. Materials that are thicker and harder or with a rough texture will cause more blade wear. If you’re slitting tough and abrasive materials, you need more frequent sharpening.
Thicker materials generally increase cutting loads and can accelerate wear. Tension and knife loading should be set to the minimum that achieves stable tracking and clean edges.
You should also choose a blade with the right metallurgical properties. A blade’s composition will impact how it wears. Different slitter blade hardening methods work for various materials. Choose tougher blades for harder materials, or your blades will wear out faster.
Keep records of when you sharpen your blades and follow the set maintenance schedules. If you know how often your blades need sharpening, you can set predictive and preventative maintenance schedules instead of waiting until your blades are damaged. This reduces the costs of wasted materials and blade replacements that can happen due to excessive use of dull blades.
If your blades have significant cracks or chips or look warped, it may be more economical to replace them.
You need your slitter blades to be sharp and functional to meet production schedules and keep your factory safe. But industrial blade sharpening is a demanding process that requires top expertise for the best results.
Hyde brings 150 years of custom-slitter blade manufacturing experience to the table. We know how to control tolerance and sharpen blades with consistent quality.
Don’t trust your blades to an inexperienced grinder. Contact us today to get your blades in optimal condition fast.