Customized equipment builder makes the cut with continuous-cutting-tooth blades

Situation

Panafab Custom Machine Builders, Suwanee, Ga., provides customized equipment and automation systems to customers from Fortune 500 component and tool manufacturers to small machining firms and even worm farmers.

In 2013 the company took on the production of a custom aluminum handle for a hand-held, heat-sealing tool used by the military to hermetically seal jet engines in foil polymers.

“Unfortunately, our early attempts proved far too expensive for a short run of about 1,000 parts,” said Joe Panetta, president. “We tried making our own extruded profile, but there was no way to cut the handle into the necessary z-pattern with conventional methods.”

Resolution

Following the advice of a Panafab associate, the company contacted Bestway Products Co., the manufacturer of Spyral saw blades. Designed with a single, continuous cutting tooth that spirals 360 degrees around the length of a hardened steel wire, the saw blades enable the tight, intricate cuts that are nearly impossible with conventional saw blades.

“Conventional toothed saw blades are typically flat, cut in a forward direction, and need to be positioned so the teeth face the material at the right angle,” said Stuart Gordon, Bestway owner and president. “Our Spyral saw blades cut in all directions, even sideways and backwards. They will cut in the direction of the feed pressure, which can make a significant difference when cutting without rigid fixturing.”

After several initial conversations with Bestway, Panafab developed a cutting platform based on the manufacturer’s recommendations. This custom band saw would be designed to cut the aluminum handles rapidly and sequentially from an aluminum extrusion, requiring only two axes of motion to produce a part in one cut. This action would be repeated continually until the entire extrusion was consumed.

Before designing the saw, Bestway suggested that Panafab send the extrusion material for test cuts. “Once we received the material and thoroughly understood their fabrication needs, we experimented with Spyral blades of different diameters until we developed a template that we thought would work,” said Gordon. “We had previously put in a lot of effort to develop a weld for the Spyral blade to be used in continuous-loop applications.”

Bestway was able to provide several recommendations within a few days after receiving the manufacturing details and running tests on the aluminum pieces. Within four months of the initial outreach, Panafab was producing 1,500-piece batches of the aluminum handle with a 0.050-in. blade, making dimensionally accurate, simultaneous vertical and horizontal cuts in a single stroke.