Assorted Machine Knives

DETCO manufactures all types of industrial machine knives. These knives are used for cutting metal, paper, textile, carpet and wood. DETCO is capable of producing knives in lengths up to 20 feet.

DETCO knives are manufactured in many configurations including straight rectangular, tapered, and circular. Machines have a variety of cutting edges including square, beveled, serrated, and curved.

Detroit Edge Tool Company is the oldest machine knife manufacturer in the world. DETCO was established in 1885, solely as a manufacturer of machine knives for the lumber and woodworking industries. Its products initially included planer knives and veneer knives. As the years passed and the lumber and woodworking industries evolved, many other knives were manufactured by DETCO, such as chipper knives, molding knives, flooring knives, and others. As steel and metals became a larger part of products such as automobiles and appliances, DETCO became involved in producing metal cutting machine knives. Many of the machine knives for the lumber and woodworking industries were eliminated from DETCO products.

DETCO’s dedication and attention to quality and innovation have remained proud traditions since 1885. These two traits have continued through the long established policy of the company’s owners and management. The company continuously strives for innovative production methods, sales approaches, and human resources.

For metal cutting applications, DETCO manufactures both straight rectangular shear blades and circular slitter knives. Straight rectangular shear blades are used for squaring shears, flying shears, scrap shears, plate shears, and other special application shears. Circular slitters are used for slitting coil steel and side trimming operations in steel mills.

Rectangular metal cutting shear blades are used for cutting bars made of ferrous and non-ferrous metals. These shear blades have serrated cutting edges in the form of the bars being sheared. Passes are shaped in the cutting edge depending on the number of bars being sheared per stroke of the shear. The material used in serrated shear blades is high strength shock resistant, heat-treated for the application. These shear blades are also used for hot cutting applications in steel mills or forging operations. They are designed and heat treated for the specific operation.

Circular slitter knives are used for cutting a wide variety of materials, the most common being in the metals industries. Circular slitter knives are used on specially designed slitting machines for cutting wide coils of both ferrous and non-ferrous metals into narrower strips, which are again rolled into individual coils. The outside diameter and thickness of the knives, as well as the knife material, are determined by the type and thickness of the metal being slit. Circular slitter knives are heat treated for the particular slitting application in order to assure the best edge-holding characteristics and clean cuts.

Machine knives of a wide variety are used for cutting paper. Sheeter knives, which are used on the wet end or pulp end of the paper machine and on the dry end or finishing end, to cut the paper into smaller rolls or sheets, are made of a special process of welded high- speed steel. The cutting edge consists of welded high-speed steel laid onto a mild steel backing. This becomes a bi-metal product with the cutting edge gaining the advantages of the high-speed steel, and the backing remaining soft for machining holes or slots, eliminating distortion problems associated with heat-treating solid construction high-speed steel knives. This same kind of knife is used in the textile and carpet industries for the purpose of shaving or shearing the surface of the fabric or carpet to maintain a certain finish or height of the material or pile. The knives are known as ledger blades and are used as bottom or bed knives against which spiral knives fit in a drum revolve, much like a spiral lawn mower. The ledger blades range from eight foot to eighteen foot lengths. DETCO does not manufacture the spiral blades.

Many shorter, straight knives, both inlaid and solid steel, are for cutting applications in the paper, packaging, printing, plastic industries. Sheeter type knives are used for cutting rolls of plastic film into smaller rolls or sheets, much the same as the dry end of the paper machine. DETCO also manufactures knives for granulating, grinding or shredding plastic into granules, which are then re-processed into new plastic parts.

Smaller and thinner circular slitter knives are used in the paper industry, much the same as the metals industry, for the purpose of cutting large paper rolls into narrower rolls for further processing. These knives are made to cut against each other in the same manner as metal slitting knives, or used to cut against a steel arbor with the paper passing in between. DETCO also furnishes these knives.

Another use of inlaid, high-speed steel knives is for trimming stacks of sheeted paper into given sizes or dimensions. These again are straight knives ranging in length from two feet to ten feet and are used on paper trimming machines. These machines are basically found in the paper or printing industries.

To inquire about various machine knives, a blueprint or sample knife is helpful. For budgetary pricing, DETCO requires length, width, thickness, or diameter in the case of circular knives, tolerance specifications, and type and thickness of material to be cut.