Armstrong Manufacturing Co

Armstrong’s VariSharp CNC band saw sharpener features a two-axis CNC system to grind virtually all band saw tooth patterns used by sawmills today. Touchscreen control, industrialgrade Pentium computer and brushless servo driven ball screws replace the two-cam system that was used previously.

Grinding parameters, including on/off the face, gullet depth and number of grinding passes, can be controlled by operator inputs on the touchscreen or manually as on a standard No 4 sharpener. Grinding wheel rpm and teeth per minute are also touchscreen-controlled. A powerful two-hp grinding wheel motor and variable frequency drive provide optimum grinding
performance.

VariSharp also features an on-board Armstrong tooth library with over 300 standard, variable pitch, and variable pitch and depth tooth patterns and DXF (drawing interchange file) export capability.

VariSharp’s on-board tooth design software is also available as a stand-alone program that can be downloaded to a PC from Armstrong’s website. This free VariDesign Deluxe software is said to be a $500 value.

www.armstrongblue.com

Hanchett Manufacturing

Hanchett’s Mighty Mite is a 40” traveling head shave type knife grinder. It offers both a quality and economical solution for operators. It features a 1.5-hp grinding spindle, a 6” x 2” x 5” steel-backed grinding wheel, variable speed pneumatic carriage drive, variable stroke adjustment and a precision linear dual profile rail system.

The Mighty Mite has replaceable bearings, a swivel style Acme knife bar with air clamping, as well as a full flood recirculation coolant system. The carriage also tips back for easy wheel change. There is a choice of several options including mechanical clamping and electromagnetic knife bar and way covers.

The Mighty Mite weighs only 910 lbs and takes up minimal floor space—70”L x 25”W x 33”H. Electrical needs are also minimal—1/60/115 volt 20 amp.

www.hanchett.com

Iseli & Co AG

Iseli & Co offers the EBW, EM2 and EM3 machines. The EBW is for side grinding log band saw blades, circular saw blades and gang saw blades. Feed speed is determined by a two-step motor and is designed to be stable, like all the company’s machines.

The EM2 is a side grinding machine, but with hydraulic control. It’s designed for grinding log band saw blades, circular saw blades and gang saw blades. This Iseli machine includes a selectively programmable 24 V modern electrical control system featuring failure display and optional recording of measured values.

The EM3 is the fully automatic CNC controlled side-grinding machine for band saw blades, circular saw blades and frame saw blades. The complete sequence of operation is programmable by CNC control. Operation and programming of the machine is executed by touchscreen on the monitor. The advanced saw tooth is positioned and finish-ground in one or several passages by automatic feeding. It features a special program that allows grinding of variable tooth widths.

www.iseli-swiss.com

Pacific/Hoe Saw & Knife Co

Pacific/Hoe offers the Jacobsen Manufacturing line. The JM-1000 Top and Face Grinder is a fully hydraulic precision grinder featuring fully programmable microprocessor control.

The JM-2000 plasmatic alloy tipper and induction annealer offers significant savings in both time and alloy. There’s very little tooth preparation required prior to tipping and a resistance weld tipper grinds away expensive alloy on the retipping process.

The JM-3000-C dual side grinder is fully hydraulic, quick to set up and easy to operate. Precision operation can be either manual or automatic. It is totally enclosed, keeping coolant and chemicals contained for a cleaner filing room.

The JM-6000 is fully automatic and user friendly. Cycle times are approximately five minutes for a normal gang saw. Just select a preset program, mount your saw and push start. The JM-6000 automatically stops and is ready for the next saw. Saw changes take only five seconds, the company says. The unique touch screen and AB processor offer as many as eight separate operator programs.

www.pacific-hoe.com

Vollmer/Cut Technologies

Cut Technologies is the exclusive Canadian distributor and US sales representative for all primary Vollmer grinding equipment for sawmills. Vollmer is a leader in grinding technology and machinery, providing state-of-the-art top and face and side grinders, which are available at fully robotic service centres.

The Vollmer Service Center incorporates an automatic grinding machine, an intelligent robotic system for loading/unloading and Vollmer’s PMC multi processor that handles all aspects of the machining operation. The Service Center meets today’s demands while setting new standards for future sharpening requirements. The modular design of the Service Center provides optimum machining flexibility. Adding additional machines and carriages can expand the scope of operation as capacity increases.

This machine has been designed for 24/7 operation and provides maximum flexibility to handle varying blade diameters and tooth configurations. Complete fine-axis machining delivers precise grinding of the most intricate tooth geometries in a single set-up.

Graphic prompting allows operators to enter simple data in order to generate grinding programs. Data is easily reviewed at both control desk and data input station. Historical data, as well as existing programs, can be stored and recalled.

www.vollmer-us.com

www.cuttech.com

Simonds International Corp

The company’s Vari Pitch is a practical machine for sharpening narrow band saw blades, 2” wide and under.

Vari Pitch is a variable distance from tooth tip to tooth tip in repeating pattern in a band saw blade. Simonds’ Vari Pitch saws are a proven commodity in both metal cutting and wideband sawmill applications, the company says. The Vari Pitch pattern works to break up harmonic vibration yielding a quieter cutting process and a smoother cut. Sawmills have experienced reduced “washboard” condition on lumber. One of the challenges to taking advantage of Vari Pitch band saw blades in portable sawmill applications is there are limited options for resharpening the blades.

As more narrow kerf band saw blades become available with Vari Pitch tooth patterns, such as Simonds’ 2” wide Red Streak line—in carbon steel, bi-metal and carbide tip—the development of sharpening equipment to enable portable sawmill owners to take full advantage of Vari Pitch technology becomes an increasing challenge to the industry.

www.simondsint.com

Wright Machine Tool

Wright Machine Tool’s overriding design objective is to produce machines providing the highest quality grind with the lowest maintenance and operating cost.

The availability of high speed and high capacity computing power has allowed the company to design and build the next generation of sharpener, the Novus X2. The Novus takes advantage of an advanced real-time operating system and integrated motion control platform to allow features such as job queuing, remote access for factory trouble shooting, e-mail alerts of maintenance issues, and “smart” components for on screen alerts.

The company’s lines offer a full range of machines—manual, automatic, and fully CNC controlled—giving operations the ability to match their requirements with their budget.

www.wrightools.com

Williams & White

Initial testing of the Williams & White (W&W) robotic saw sharpening system (SAL) has proved that the revolutionary mechanical saw handling system can reduce labour by up to 70 per cent, the company says. SAL is designed to reduce the labour required to load each saw by hand.

Ideally matched to the filing room workload and budget, the new W&W saw auto-loading system (W&W SAL) automatically loads up to 50 saws onto either the W&W top and face grinder or the dual side grinder. The SAL Auto–Loader can also be retrofitted to recent models of the Williams & White machines.

The newest addition to the line is the W&W Top & Face Series II (TFH-C). This machine is hydraulic, creating smoother operation and sharper saws. Some of the benefits include: full hydraulic package; ISI (intelligent saw indexing system) that reduces cycle time by managing the feed finger cycle time; an improved guarding package; flexible grinding control to grind multiple tooth pattern and depth of cut; and improved graphics.

W&W knife grinders are available from 36” to 240” grinding capacity. A proprietary “easy grinding wheel” change system and improved grinding wheel wear compensation program gives the operator ease and flexibility to custom grind any project to exact tolerances. Down feed is controlled by a CNC servo motor and is adjustable 0.000 to 0.005” per step. And the grinding spindle motor incorporates precision angular contact bearings, which absorb axial and radial loads, and protect the spindle from damage, allowing for the deepest possible cut.

www.williamsandwhite.com