Carbide Bandsaw Blades are derived from the carbide saw, a name that originated from a circular saw blade with silver soldered carbide tips. Other names include cold cut, cold circular, cold cut-off, and circular cold saws.
The carbide blade nearly replaced solid or segmented high-speed steel (HSS) blades since carbide is much harder than HSS.
HSS blades use coolant to keep the surface from over-heating, but the carbide circular saw has a unique geometry of teeth that allows for heat developed during the cutting process to be transferred to and then carried away with the chips.
The most common type of carbide saw is the Horizontal Slide Saw. The saw blade for this model is mounted on the gearbox spindle, it slides on horizontally, and horizontally enters the billet.
Conversely, the Vertical Slide Bandsaw enters into the material vertically. The vertical bandsaw is commonly used as a material layering saw in order for tubes, profiles, or bars to be cut simultaneously.
Carbide saws with an incline are used to cut railroad ties since the saw blade enters into the rail profile best.
Pivot Saws have the pivot above the machine bed so that the saw blade enters vertically, and in an arch-shape, into the material, and without a closed force loop.
At SawBlade.com, we offer three different types of Carbide saw blade.
Carbon blades, which include the 101 and 102 series of carbide blade, are designed to work with most wood materials, but there are bi-metal blades, including the 501, 601, and the 701 series of bandsaw blade that are used for hard materials like structural steels, alloys, and solids.
Then there are the carbide-tipped blades, which are a tougher saw blade than the rest.
A carbide-tipped blade is made from a ball of carbide welded in a pocket that is milled into the tooth tip. The ball, found in the tooth tip, is ground to blend in with the tooth shape, offering for a durable bandsaw blade.
Carbide-tipped bandsaw blades are used on non-ferrous materials, abrasives, plastics, abrasive woods, Masonite, composites, transit, and cast iron. They are also of good use with exotic materials like uranium, beryllium, titanium, Inconel, Hastoalloy, Monel, waspaloy, and others.
Being a special type of blade, the carbide-tipped bandsaw blade is also the most expensive blade. The cost issue aside, it is still the best blade choice for use on the hardest materials involved in any cutting process.
If you have a tough or abrasive sawing application, or if a high surface finish quality is critical to the job, then a carbide-tipped bandsaw blade is recommended.
