Looking for Help in choosing material for industrial shear blade

D

Dutchmichael

Joined
Apr 12, 2015
Messages
29
Hello Everyone,

Might be an odd question, but the members of this forum have a lot of knowledge in blade steel and I thought they might have some suggestions. I am designing a machine that will have basically pruning shears that spin attached to a tractor to cut vineyard vines. I am trying to determine what would be the best steel for this application. The material would have to be very tough as it would be abused quite a bit ( steel wires might get caught in it \ and pry the blade from the mandrill ). I'm thinking of Hardox 600 or 550 ( which I know is not really a blade steel ), but was hoping some of the members might have some industrial steel options they would recommend. Much appreciated for any info you might have.

Mike
 
How much cutting steel do you need? The fancy steels get expensive, but if you only need a thin strip they might be worth it.
Does it need to be corrosion resistant?

My not very expert guess; i would go for a spring steel. Something like 5160. I'm assuming a fairly blunt edge (45+), with a lot of force behind it
 
Hardox 600 should be a steel that would work, (AFAIK).

Depending on many factors, a bolt-on carbide edge plate may be a wise choice. The blade base could be any tough low alloy steel.

D-2 would be an affordable choice for a mono-steel blade.

There are many other very tough steels, and the final choice may be cost vs lif expectancy.
 
Thanks Alex and Stacy for the replies. The blades would be approximately 6.25in x 1.75in in size and one machine would need 34 blades ( Appomattox 2.6 sq.ft. per unit ), so material cost is a bit of consideration. I'll have a look into 5160 and D2 a little further in detail. Thanks for the suggestions!
 
At the mill where I work all out blades are D2. Thy are lower hardness then normally ran for knives but thy take a real beating. Our huge chipper will eat a full log, not that it’s meant to do that but it has happened.
 
JTknives said:
At the mill where I work all out blades are D2. Thy are lower hardness then normally ran for knives but thy take a real beating. Our huge chipper will eat a full log, not that it’s meant to do that but it has happened.
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From my sharpening of wood chipper blades, a few were marked D2 and most of the rest seemed like the same steel with how they would sharpen. Can’t help the OP with a exact hardness ?? Perhaps 54-55 RC? But these D2 blades would have to eat wood, Nails, wire, Bullets etc.. if you call Paul at Buck knives For Heat treating, they have done all of my knife blades for 22 years and he’s very knowledgeable and has most likely HTed those kinds of blades. They could do yours.
 
for an application where you want a steel that can hold an edge and cut but will still tolerate impact and contact with wire I can't think of a better choice than cpm3v.

I think that 3V at 60 would run circles around D2 at 56. Spendy, but tougher and would stay sharper. Better corrosion resistance too.
 
Thank you for all the replies! I think from the research I've done, and the information given here I will probably go with a Hardox 600 or D2. I like some of the other options as well, but cost and availability starts to become a bit of an issue for this particular application. Thank you again, and I will let you know how the material performs once we start testing our machine.
 
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