April 18 - The last big leap in the manufacturing of band saw blades took place in the mid-1960s, when bimetal saw blades were recognized and cemented carbide saw blades followed. Before the bimetal saw blade, the sawing efficiency of the band saw is limited. In the past, band saw blades used to be made of high carbon steel because they were flexible enough to withstand the stresses caused by the bending trajectory of the drive wheels and blade guides of the saw machine. Bimetal saw blades require a flexible base material, which is an obstacle for manufacturers to improve cutting efficiency by increasing material hardness and prolonging blade life. According to the tooth shape design of conventional saw blade, this new tooth profile provides higher cutting speed and longer life. The new tooth shape is designed to have a positive inclination angle and a chip clearance. Cutting more smoothly, quickly and cleanly, bimetal and carbide band saw blades have made a permanent and astonishing change in the cutting process. Since then, in addition to improved hard tooth welding methods, the development of saw tooth structure, tooth shape, blade material and steel back has made the band saw blade comparable. The steady pace is advancing towards productivity and saw life. Like bimetal and carbide saw blades, the latest developments in the second generation of PVD coatings and sawtooth designs are the latest leap forward in bandsaw cutting. After years of application of the second generation coatings to small cutters such as drills, blades, end mills, etc., they began to appear in the band saw blade manufacturing industry in the early 1990s, with mixed success and failure, because the earliest TiN coated saw blades were not only expensive, but also troubled by inconsistent manufacturing quality. Today, second-generation coatings allow for higher sawing and feed speeds, and prevent excessive friction and heat on blades, because they enhance blade toughness. The protective coating on the saw blade can obviously improve the production efficiency without reducing the service life of the saw blade. These coatings are the next most needed improvement in the band saw market: coated carbide saw blades that increase feed rate and bimetal saw blades that improve blade life. Over the past few years, saw blade manufacturers have gradually mastered the various coating processes (chemistry, material preparation, coating techniques and fixtures) required for large cutting tools such as bandsaw blades, and bandsaw blades produced by improved coating processes have become increasingly popular in factories, especially in high-yield processing plants. Manufacturers now produce a variety of advanced and special-purpose (such as titanium nitride (TiN) and aluminum titanium nitride (AlTiN) coated saw blades, which provide unprecedented productivity and increase life expectancy. Coated bimetal saw blades have the advantages of both bimetal and protective coatings. In addition to increasing the life of the saw blades, they can also ensure high cutting speed and feed rate. Currently, bandsaw blade manufacturers are developing future coatings, including third-generation PVD coatings for nanocomposites. Tooth profile design is becoming more and more important for many years. Manufacturers have been steadily improving tooth profile. In the mid-1990s, the emergence of 3D machining simulation software and other design techniques accelerated the pace of tooth profile improvement, making it possible to minimize field testing. Field testing usually takes a long time and is expensive. With these new tools, new methods such as variable tooth height/tooth splitting pattern are optimized, which enable many processing plants to maximize the return on investment from bandsaw.