By Leon Botes, Sales Manager - QLD & NSW

The importance of changing sawblades for productivity

When your sawblades are not performing at their optimal rate, you can’t expect the quality of your product to be up to standard. Let’s look at the impacts this can cause and how to stay on top of your sawblade replacement schedule.

Machinery impacts of blunt sawblades

Running your sawblade past the blunt stage will cause unnecessary wear and tear on your machine. The machine will need to work harder which causes the motor to work harder and usually results in overheating. Blunt sawblades can also result in spindle damage because there is additional strain on the bearings. It’s this kind of avoidable damage that you really need to protect against.

Productivity impacts of blunt sawblades

Blunt blades cannot run at optimal speed so your crew will be working at a slower pace. The machine may need to be stopped so it can cool down or it may need a quick restart. Either way, that costs time and money and interrupts workflow and momentum. You can always restart a machine but your human workforce may take a little longer getting back up to full productivity.

3 days of production lost over a 15-minute oversight

An Accurate customer was running a grooving sawblade and neglected to check on its condition. Unfortunately, they overran it and all the blade tips broke off. They didn’t realise until maintenance was carried out and all the tips were gone.

They had to physically check thousands of pieces of wood to ensure the depth of the groove was correct, which took two whole days of what would otherwise be manufacturing time, plus an extra day to re-run the wood to the correct depth; costing the operation thousands of dollars.

Had they spent a mere 15 minutes to check and change the blunt sawblades, operations would have rolled on as per normal.

How to know when it’s time to replace your blunt sawblades

Don’t base your replacement expectations on linear metre usage. Instead, base them around an hourly rate. Start with hourly inspection so your workers can get to know the natural wear and tear cycle of the blades. When it’s deemed time to replace the blades, make a note of the time they were changed. In just a few days, you’ll have a clear idea as to the number of hours – at normal volume – your blades last. If, for you, it’s an average of seven hours, then you can stop inspecting hourly and move to a seven-hourly replacement schedule.

Think of your machines like a car. Your car will stop if it runs out of fuel. Your timber processing machines will stop if there is a failure, but on the way, there’ll be productivity and financial losses.