Why Industrial Blades Fail and How to Fix It: A Guide to Failure Analysis

It's simple: Failed industrial blades mean lost productivity and higher costs. An offline machine means time lost. Failed blades can also damage the rest of the machine, adding to your expenses and cutting margins. Worst of all, blade failures put your factory team at risk. A failed blade can break and send debris flying.

Training everyone on the floor on blade failure analysis improves safety and makes your team more efficient by preventing unnecessary downtime and maximizing industrial blade use. When a failure occurs, working with an experienced partner like Hyde for a detailed systemic failure analysis gets you back online faster.

What Blade Failure Looks Like in Real Operations

Industrial blade failure isn’t always as dramatic as losing a whole blade mid-cut. Failures often start small:

• Dulling: If you notice poor cuts, uneven finishes, and longer cycle times, check your blades for dulling. This is common in food processing, plastics, rubber conversion, and other industries relying on continuous cutting. 
• Chipping: Uneven or rough cuts can indicate chipped blades. Plastics, lumber, and other abrasive materials can chip the metal. 
• Deformation: Materials getting stuck during feeding cycles or decreased cutting performance are signs that your blades are deformed. The high-stress, high-heat cutting common in aerospace, metalwork, and food processing can cause blade deformities. 
• Cracking: If your machine starts making unusual noises or vibrating excessively, look for cracks. Chips can often develop into cracks. 
• Heat tinting: Excessive heat can oxidize the metal in your blades, causing them to change color. As part of routine inspections, check for heat tinting. 

Regularly inspecting your blades for these signs of damage enables proactive maintenance. It's easy to reduce downtime by repairing or replacing blades when issues are small — not so much when they grow into big problems.

The Most Common Industrial Blade Failure Modes

Understanding different failure modes will help you diagnose the root cause and take steps towards preventing blade damage in the future. 

Fatigue

Fatigue failure occurs when blades weaken over time, developing small cracks that eventually grow and cause the blade to fail. It's usually caused by repetitive loads, even when loading under the recommended yield strength. 

Repeatedly heating and cooling your blades during startup and shutdown can also cause fatigue. So can heavy vibration while cutting.

Abrasion

Abrasion refers to scratches, pits, gouges, and other material loss. It's common in plastics processing, food processing, lumber, and other industries that work with hard, abrasive materials. Dirt, rocks, and other debris ending up in your machinery can also abrade blades. 

As your blades cut these materials, small particles cause erosion, similar to sandpaper. Over time, small nicks and pits can turn into cracks. 

Chipping

When small pieces break off your knife’s cutting edge, it’s a chipping failure. Chips usually appear when your blades have weak spots that crack and break under stress. They can also happen when you’re using the wrong blade to cut through a material. 

Thermal Cracking

Thermal cracking results from repeated heating and cooling cycles. Think about an icy road: As water freezes, it expands and puts extra pressure on the surrounding concrete. Over time, the road cracks. Water seeps into these cracks and turns them into potholes.

Your industrial knife blades go through a similar process. Intense heat causes the surface material to expand while the inner core remains cool. These temperature variations stress your blade and result in small cracks. 

Corrosion

If you’ve ever seen a car with rusty rims, you’ve seen corrosion in action. Moisture, chemicals, and even other metals can corrode a knife blade. Even if your blades are coated to protect against corrosion, it can still happen if the coating is damaged. 

Adhesion/Galling

Adhesion or galling refers to a type of failure in which material sticks to your knife blades. It’s common when you’re working with thin or sticky materials, such as plastic film or certain foods. This can weaken your blades and make them prone to cracks. 

How To Diagnose Blade Failure Accurately

Accurate diagnoses can help prevent similar issues from recurring. For the right industrial blade solutions, follow these steps:

1. Visual Inspection: Start by powering down your machine and looking over the blade. Inspect the breaking point first and look for visual damage. Check for chips, cracks, discoloration, dulling, and bending or warping. 
2. Magnification: Remove the blade and examine it under a magnifying lamp, even if you see obvious signs of damage. You’ll be able to identify microfractures and other small damage. 
3. Wear Pattern Reading: Look for uniform or uneven wear, or deformation. Your blades should wear evenly with regular use. Uneven wear is a sign your blades aren’t mounted correctly or you’re using the wrong blade for a material. 
4. Discoloration: Note signs of discoloration, which can signal chemical or heat damage. 

In addition to the blade itself, check the machine's RPM, feed rate, coolant flow, and alignment for obvious deviations from the norm. If you notice significant changes in production, abnormal sounds, higher energy consumption, or other severe issues, consider calling in professionals such as Hyde to run additional tests. Our team conducts wear analyses and metallurgical reviews. You may also need blade hardness testing or microstructural analysis. 

If you need a replacement, buy American blades that are durable and precise. 

Why Industrial Blades Fail (and How To Prevent It)

Blades fail for multiple reasons: 

• Improper Installation: If your blades aren’t aligned correctly, they will wear unevenly and be more prone to cracking and other failures. 
• Incorrect Material Selection: Using the wrong blade for a task can damage it. For example, using a blade designed for soft materials to process hard plastics can cause it to shatter. 
• Neglecting Maintenance: Inspect your blades at the end of every shift to determine when to sharpen or replace them. 

An industrial blade supplier like Hyde has the metallurgical experience to customize blades for each machine. We offer custom blade fabrication and can design blades with the right materials for your job, made to OEM specifications for your machine. 

How Hyde Helps Diagnose and Prevent Industrial Blade Failure

With over 150 years of experience in manufacturing industrial blades, we understand why they fail. Our team can analyze wear patterns and other signs of damage and provide recommendations to prevent future failures.

Get a quote from Hyde for the replacement blades you need and assistance maintaining them in top condition.