One of my customers recently contacted me for assistance in improving their steel cutting production rates. They had run up against a wall in trying to get faster cut times for some large bundles of angle, i-beam, and c-channel. Their saw was running smoothly, but the cut times were way too slow for their manufacturing demands.
I made an on-site visit to get first hand look at what was going on. They were cutting a 12" x 12" bundle of c-channel, approximatley 40 pieces in the bundle, and it was taking about 50 minutes to make the cut. That was a metal removal rate of 1.38 sq. inches per minute! No wonder they were panicked! They should be cutting around 7-10 square inches per minute!
Ok, what was the problem then....well, it all came down to proper tooth selection. They had never cut those large bundles of steel before, they were used to cutting one and two pieces at a time. When they went to a larger cross section of material, they never changed the tooth pattern. They basically had about 60 teeth in the workpiece at one time- 3x too many. I brought them a much more aggressive tooth pattern, broke the blade in for one cut, then i proceeded to cut that same bundle in 9 minutes! 50 minutes to 9 minutes- ya think they love me or what!? If you want me to improve your cutting rates, improve your production output, or help with your band saw blade life, look me up at www.detroitbandsaw.com
Stay warm,
Joe Bandsaw
Very impressive - it makes total sense how you approached the problem. I am guessing they were very happy.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to thank you for this good read! I'm definitely enjoying a little 'you have a bookmark to check for new stuff to send
ReplyDeleteChris Gilman Medford, Or