US saw manufacturer sharpens focus with new machines 

Founded by Walter Morette, the owner of a haulage company, the Sharp Tool Company started out as a saw blade servicing company. Throughout its history, it has evolved to offer an unparalleled range of services - now claiming to be the USA's largest carbide tip saw distributor as well as one of the most prominent saw blade, bandsaw, knife tool and blade manufacturing and servicing businesses in New England.

Back in 1959, Walter Morette was persuaded by a friend to invest U$40,000 in a saw blade servicing company. Pre-dating the inception of Vollmer USA, Mr Morette purchased his first Vollmer machine in 1969.

At that time, the Sharp Tool Company was operating tool and cutter grinders, but the arrival of the Vollmer Finimat provided the ability to conduct face and top grinding of circular saw blades automatically.

This transformed the business from a service company to a full-blown manufacturer of saw blades. The machine proved such a success that another two rapidly followed and a 50-year relationship with Vollmer began.

The modern face of the business sees Sharp Tool manufacture upward of 700 saw blades every week with over 4,000 continuously on order and an additional 1,000 HSS and carbide tipped saw blades being serviced every seven days. The company also supplies band saw blades and following the acquisition of a flat knife business, Sharp Tool also manufactures and grinds various flat knives ranging from granulator knives, chipper knives and trimmer knives to paper, ice and brush chipper knives, shear blades and more.

Sharp Tool also imports upward of three million pieces of carbide each month with another ten million pieces kept in stock. The level of production caters for the primary and secondary wood industry that covers everything from the timber sector through to the furniture manufacturers whilst the capabilities of the Vollmer machines also give the company a strong foothold in the metal and plastic manufacturing sectors.

Father and son team Paul and Mike Morette now run the day to day operations at Sharp Tool. In 1982, when Paul took over the reins of the business from his father, the company had just five staff; this number has now grown to over 40 employees that operate out of a 22,500ft² factory filled with the latest grinding and automation technology.

The arrival of four Vollmer CHC20 machines in the late 1980's gave the business the platform to grow rapidly. The Vollmer CHC20 face and topper grinding machines streamlined operations and enabled the company to improve quality, speed up processing times and reduce labour costs.

Recently there has been a transformation of the circular saw blade industry in the USA.

Company President, Paul Morette explains: "Big investment groups are snapping-up smaller family owned saw blade businesses and creating huge groups. They are run by investors and accountants with no expertise in the industry. They are cashing-in by reducing inventory and allowing highly skilled staff and business owners to exit the industry. The result is increased lead-times, reduced service and investment, plus the loss of business relationships with customers that date back generations."

Company Vice President Mike Morette adds: "The consolidation strategy by conglomerates has resulted in huge growth for our business with more than 10% year-on-year growth over the last four years. Almost 90% of our production is made-to-order, special saw blades and while competitors are losing focus on this segment, our investment in new Vollmer machines is consolidating our position and supporting future growth."

In 2018 the company visited the GrindTec exhibition with an aim to invest in new technology and capitalise upon the situation. The result was the purchase of a Vollmer CHX1300 servo driven grinding centre and CHX840HS with automatic blade loading.

The Vollmer CHX1300 and CHX840HS were ordered to carry out face and top grinding in a single set-up. The logic behind the investment was for the most popular blade sizes up to 840mm diameter to be processed in a single set-up on an automated un-manned basis whilst the CHX1300 would provide much needed capacity for saw blades up to 1,300mm.

Within weeks, the company added to its order with an additional CHX840, which was followed in October by a CHF1300 side grinding machine to complement the CHX1300. Another CHX840 followed in in April 2019.

The arrival of the new machines has brought wide ranging benefits.

Paul Morette continues: "The surface finishes and the precision on our saw blades is much better than before. This will improve the service life of our products for our customers. Added to this, by completing face and top grinding in a single set-up, we are improving our consistency and overall quality.”

From a productivity perspective, the new Vollmer machines are at least 40% faster than the previous Vollmer CHC20 machines. With the elimination of multiple set-ups the Sharp Tool is realising throughput improvements upward of 50%.

Vollmer www.vollmer-group.com