Focus on Carbide-Tipped Circular Saws when Cutting Stainless Steel and Special Alloys

Circular saw blades are used exclusively for cut-off work, ranging from small manual feed operations, up to very large power fed saws commonly used for sectioning stock as it comes from a rolling mill or other manufacturing processes for long products. The teeth profile, as well as the tooth configuration are of fundamental importance for the blade performances; through a combination of blade rigidity and grinding wheel condition a good quality surface finish is attained for tools of commercial standard. The materials used for the production of circular saw blades are ranging from high speed steel to cemented carbides. In particular, cemented carbides, being characterized by high hardness and strength, are used in applications where materials with high wear resistance and toughness are required. The main constituents of cemented carbides are tungsten carbide and cobalt. Tungsten carbide imparts the alloys the necessary strength and wear resistance, whereas cobalt contributes to the toughness and ductility of the alloys. The WC-Co alloys are tailored for specific applications by the proper choice of tungsten carbide grain size and the cobalt content. The grain size of the tungsten carbide in WC-Co varies from about 40 μm to around 0.3 μm, the cobalt content from 3 to 30 wt%. The coarse grained hard metals are mainly used in mining applications, the smallest grain size being about 3 μm and the minimum cobalt content 6 wt%. The grain size of tungsten carbide in the metal cutting industry, as well as for universal applications lies in the range of 1-2 μm. However, with the advent of near net shape manufacturing and thin walled components, the use of submicron carbide is growing, since their high compressive strength and abrasive wear resistance can be used to produce tools with a sharp cutting edge and a large positive rake angle. In this paper, a general overview on the actual trends in the choice of the best material when cutting special alloys will be presented and discussed. Based on the recent and past literature some examples of their up-to-date application, such as circular saws used to cut stainless steels and some high strength alloys, are talk over.