Saw service specialist Lancashire Saw Company has upgraded its Blackburn plant with investment in two new blade maintenance machines from Vollmer.
The company, a long-term Vollmer user, has installed a new GPA200 Stellite tipping machine, and an RC100 automatic levelling, tensioning and straightening unit.
The GPA200 is the manufacturer’s latest Stellite-tipping development and can apply the material to gangsaw, mini gangsaw and circular saw blades from 80-360mm wide.
It uses plasma welding which, says Vollmer, ensures optimum fusion of Stellite to the blade body and savings on use of the material because of its accurate application. As the tooth formed by the GPA200’s jaws is close to the final shape, it also requires less finish grinding.
“We’ve found that it’s at least 20% faster than our existing tipping machines,” said Lancashire Saw head engineer David Ball. “All changes are made using the control panel and the precise programming makes it easy to achieve an accurate tip every time.”
The RC100 can check blades with probes to identify areas that need attention and correct them automatically by running them through its rollers. The machine can also store individual blade parameters, ensuring they are always maintained and corrected to the same criteria.
“We run the RC100 all the time,” said Lancashire managing director Steve Bentley. “And in addition to its standard automatic program, we use Vollmer’s Expert Program which enables our saw doctors to program each work step to produce a blade that meets the exact requirements of specific customers and applications.”
