The Tsune fully automatic circular-sawing machine (illustrated), using highspeed steel or tungsten carbide-tipped saw-blades, is one of several installed to produce high quality blanks for automotive component applications.

CNC control means that sawing conditions can be optimised, with output maximised. Close tolerance billets up to 0.25mm, (depending on material, size and blade wear)  of up to 100mm diameter can be produced, in batch or volume quantities, using full Statistical Process Control if required. The accuracy of these saws provides a very accurate blank for cut-to-weight applications where the volume of material in a die is critical.

Cuts are virtually burr-free, with surface finishes so fine that further machining is often unnecessary.

Specially designed carbide blade-tooth geometry gives these machines performance advantages compared to others. The blades are supported by carbide guides, on both sides of the blade body, to ensure that they remain true and square to the cut.

Components can be cut using oil mist lubrication, to produce virtually dry components with no adhering swarf.

Today’s buyers want higher quality at lower prices, delivered just-in-time. Suppliers have to remove time and costs, as far as possible, from the component-manufacturing process.

This should start with the blanks required for subsequent CNC machining or forging processes. Producing blanks at the right time, and with the required precision, can save money in materials and tooling, and through reductions in subsequent process times.

For many high-volume sawing applications, the days of bandsawing are numbered. The latest carbide circular saw technology is here, and can generate major benefits over conventional bandsawing methods.

The carbide circular sawing machines installed by Accurate Cutting Services, used in volume production throughout the day and night, are capable of cutting up to 110mm diameter steel or aluminium material, to a very high standard of precision.

They enable customers to achieve significant savings through reduced material loss, improved tool life and lower WIP, from closer tolerances in the initial stages of CNC machining, and no (or fewer) feeder jams or broken tooling/dies.

Sawing capabilities

With this carbide circular saw technology:

• poor cut length tolerances of 0.5mm to 1.0mm are a thing of the past: these carbide machines can achieve consistently tight tolerances down to +/-0.15mm with a ppk of better than 4.0 (dependent on measured characteristic), due to their robust construction and three-point carbide blade guide padspoor squareness of 0.2mm to 0.5mm is improved to typically better than 0.1mm per 30mmthe poor surface finish resulting from a band saw is replaced by a ‘milled’ finish (depending on the material properties)
• small trim cuts and bar end (typically 10mm and 100mm), and no out-of-spec components, mean high yield from raw material (exact figures are dependent on raw material length and component length)
• the saws clamp the material in front of and behind the saw blade, to prevent the heavy breakoff tags and burrs often found on band-sawn components: these components are CNC machine-ready, bringing significantly fewer misfeeds or jams in hopper-fed machines
• intelligent machine design eliminates almost all swarf contamination from the bins with cut blanks: components can be discharged straight to bins with no swarf carry-through, again reducing the risk of jamming hopper-fed CNC machines
• the components have a minimal residual coating of oil on cut surfaces, as the machine uses a total consumption lubrication system: this means no coolant build-up in bins, and dry swarf.