How to Prevent Fast Blade Wear & Tear
How can you prevent fast wear of industrial blades? Frequent blade changes, rough edges, and unplanned downtime often come from using the wrong blade material, geometry, or setup. By choosing the right knife type, applying coatings, and optimizing cutting conditions, converters can extend blade life by several multiples. This article explains practical ways to reduce wear and improve uptime in film converting, packaging, and recycling.
We previously covered 6 reasons that can affect the wear rate of your industrial knives in the article “6 Reasons Why Your Blades Wear Out Fast”. In the current article you can read about possible ways to extend the life of your cutting tools, knives and blades.
Tips on How to Make Your Industrial Blades Last Longer
Why is blade material choice critical to wear resistance?
It sounds basic, but it’s often overlooked. Make sure you’re using a blade that’s designed for the material you’re cutting. For tougher cutting operations, solid tungsten carbide knives, ceramic razor blades, coated blades, and bimetal knives are often the better long-term choice. Stainless steel knives are corrosion-resistant, so they are suitable for humid or food-safe environments. For abrasive films with calcium carbonate, ceramic-coated blades can last 5–8× longer than uncoated steel blades.
Read more about the right material choice here.
How does blade geometry affect wear and cut quality?
Optimize the edge profile and bevel angle for the material and thickness you’re cutting. Work with your blade supplier to define the correct:
- Bevel angle (single/double-sided, steep vs. shallow)
- Tip radius (for precision vs. durability)
- Thickness and grind profile
Sollex offers technical guidance and customized blades for specialized applications.
Which coatings extend industrial blade life?
Coatings on the blade can be used to change the characteristics of the cutting application. The edge coating on a blade acts as a protector against the wear and tear of the material. Various coatings extend blade life and improve cut quality. As an added benefit, coatings can improve surface quality and reduce friction, which reduces heat and wear.
Blades with titanium, ceramic, zero-friction coatings on the blade cutting edges offer higher wear resistance and longer service life, especially under tough cutting conditions. Advanced coatings improve both hardness and lubricity. These coatings are especially effective when processing adhesive-laminated, composite, or abrasive materials.
About Sollex blade coatings, you can find information on this page: “Guide about product qualities & coatings”.
How can friction and heat reduction slow blade wear?
In high-speed cutting operations, heat and friction can significantly accelerate blade wear. Adjusting cutting speed, blade pressure, and cooling systems can help improve blade longevity.
Does polishing help prevent corrosion and wear?
The mirror polishing process is used to improve the cutting performance of the product. It also reduces contamination when cutting materials that are sticky or produce dust. In addition, it removes oxidation. A combination of polishing and applying an additional coating, such as ceramic, helps prevent corrosion of industrial knives and blades, especially on the cutting edges. It is even advisable to use mirror polishing and an additional coating of cutting edges together for the best effect. Mirror-polished shear knives on adhesive film reduce glue buildup by up to 40% compared to unpolished edges.
Read more about mirror polishing in our blog here.
What machine settings extend blade longevity?
Adjust cutting parameters to avoid excessive converting and slitting knife load:
- Maintain proper alignment between blades and anvils
- Monitor tension in web-fed materials
- Avoid overfeeding, underlubrication, or uneven substrate flow
- Keep blade housings clean and regularly inspect for buildup
Order Right Machine Knives and Slitter Blades
Fast blade wear isn’t inevitable. By combining the right blade material, geometry, coatings, polishing, and proper setup, converters can reduce downtime and extend tool life significantly. Sollex provides expert guidance and blades engineered for long-lasting, high-quality cutting in flexible packaging, plastic film, paper, and recycling. Sollex provides high-performance industrial knives and razor blades designed for film converting, packaging materials, cardboard, recycled materials, composite processing, and more. Whether you need a customized solution or expert advice on improving tool life, our team is here to support your production needs.
We can produce the appropriate custom knife based on your sample, part number, or sketch. Our product range includes:
- Machine Knives for Flexible Packaging: Circular slitter knives, paper slitting knives, industrial shear blades, score rotary knives, toothed machine knives / serrated knives, , perforating blades, crush cutters, tungsten carbide slitting rotary knives, top dished-shaped circular slitting and bottom knives for cutting a wide range of materials.
- Industrial Razor Blades for Plastic Film: Slotted slitter blades, industrial razor blades with 3 holes, injector blades, slitter - rewinder blades, ceramic coated slitter blades, tungsten carbide razor blades.
- Machine Knives for Recycling: Granulator blades, pelletizer blades, carbide knives, serrated knives, shearing blades.
- Machine Knives for Paper and Cardboard: Top and bottom slitter knives, carbide slitting knives, crush cutters, circular dished knives, score and shear blades, rotary machine knives, pointed blades.
- Plotter Knives & Blades for CNC Digital Cutting Systems: For those in the digital cutting realm, our plotter knives are tailored for CNC Digital Cutting Systems like Zund, Summa, and Gerber, ensuring precision and durability.
- Safety Knives & Blades: Safety knives are essential for reducing workplace injuries, especially in environments where opening cardboard and plastic packaging is frequent.
- Utility & Craft Blades: Our professional utility blades are optimized for cutting materials like plaster, roofing felt, and various types of floors. We offer long straight blades, short straight blades, hook blades, concave blades, scalpels, and more.
- Customized Solutions: Sollex excels in creating customized knives, knife blades, and industrial razor blades tailored to your specific requirements. Our in-house team of engineers and experts work closely with you to design, develop, and deliver the best solutions.
If you have any questions about machine tool knives, contact Sollex at +4635-15 75 00 or by email order@sollex.se.
FAQ
Q: Why do industrial blades wear out quickly?
A: Common reasons include wrong blade material, poor geometry, lack of coatings, excessive heat and friction, and incorrect machine setup.
Q: Which blade materials last the longest?
A: Solid tungsten carbide and ceramic-coated blades provide the highest wear resistance for abrasive films, laminates, and composites.
Q: How do coatings extend blade life?
A: Coatings like TiN, ceramic, and zero-friction reduce adhesive buildup, lower friction, and increase hardness, allowing cleaner cuts and fewer blade changes.
Q: Does polishing blades make a difference?
A: Yes. Mirror-polished blades reduce contamination, improve cut quality, and protect against oxidation and adhesive buildup.
Q: How can I optimize cutting conditions to prevent wear?
A: Maintain proper blade alignment, control web tension, ensure correct overlap and pressure, and keep blade housings clean to avoid uneven loading.
