Inside a Certified Weld Center: Producing Lenox Band Saw Blades at Scale

How Lenox Innovates Its Band Saw Blades

“Lenox has been making band saw blades in America for 105 years,” explains Brian Rooke, national accounts director for the company.

All production is in the United States, and the current headquarters in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, is just 9 miles from the original plant.

Lenox Industrial Tools’ reputation, Rooke says, is built on innovation and quality—made possible by continuous investment in R&D.

“We have always been a premium product,” adds Matt Lacroix, vice president of marketing for commercial construction and industrial power tool accessories for Lenox, a division of Stanley Black & Decker. “The reason is that we help people reach their cutting goals for productivity and higher performance. You might pay more per blade, but you’re going to use fewer blades over the course of a year.”

The technical field service team is really the secret sauce, Lacroix says. There are competitive quality products on the market, he acknowledges. “But no one does what our field team does.”

The applications specialists go into facilities, determine the users' needs, and then work with the saw operators to tune up the machines, establish optimal parameters for different blades and share best-practice cutting techniques, he explains. The goal is to help businesses get the most from their saw operations.

Evolving Band Saw Blades Through R&D

To that end, Lenox invests in product evolution to stay abreast of changes in the market.

“We have a team of R&D engineers that are always working on tooth designs, evaluating new raw materials and developing edge preparation techniques to make sure that the products are always performing at their peak level,” Lacroix says.

For instance, for a bi-metal blade, the engineers might look at new edge materials. For a carbide blade, they might consider different carbide grades.

“They’re always working on tooth geometries and tooth patterns, all the rake and relief angles on the blade, as well as how the cutting edge is bonded to the backing steel.” And, Lacroix notes, all of that research is done against a backdrop of new band saw equipment coming on the market too.

Another leading innovation focus for Lenox has been physical vapor deposition coatings. Its first coated blade was the Armor CT Black. The addition of PVD coating to a tooth edge protects the teeth from heat and wear by forcing the heat into the chips instead of the teeth, Lacroix explains. The teeth stay sharper longer and achieve better cutting speeds.

Lacroix says Lenox was the first blade maker to use coatings, and its engineers refine the coating recipes.

The evolution of materials in specific industries drives change too. Aerospace and automotive manufacturing both offer examples of how materials affect blade development, Lacroix says.

“The materials that are needed to succeed in aerospace are very challenging to cut—high-nickel alloys, Inconel and Monel. Our blades have to evolve to keep up with those materials,” he says. In automotive, there’s been a transition from steel to aluminum “because it’s lighter yet still strong and durable,” but cutting it fast requires carbide blades to withstand the heat buildup.
 

The Path Manufacturers Take to Solve Challenging Cut Dilemmas

It might start with a simple call into an MSC Customer Care Center.

“I have a cutting challenge.”

“I’ve got a really tough application.”

“This new thing just came in.”

“I’m having problems cutting this material.”

“I’m not sure how to handle this application.”

But ultimately, each of these comes down to: “I need your help to solve my cutting problem in a highly productive, cost-effective way,” says Kim Shacklett, vice president of customer care at MSC Industrial.

Shacklett oversees MSC’s advanced metalworking technical specialists, who work both internally and externally with customers across multiple manufacturing applications, including cutting. The centralized inside Metalworking Tech Team manages thousands of technical interactions with all customer segments. The field-based Metalworking Specialist Team is spread all across the country servicing customers’ technical application needs—hands on and face to face. 

Both of these teams count on the MSC Lenox Certified Weld Center to assist them in delivering solutions to their customers.

She also has responsibility for a special-order group that responds to custom asks and requests for proposals. This team also relies heavily on the weld center to support customers’ custom needs.   

Bottom line, when a cutting query arises, her entire team of specialists collaborates with the account teams and the weld center to problem-solve and determine the right approach.

“But most important,” Shacklett says, “MSC can deliver off-the-shelf or custom blades to the customer quickly so they can get the job done for their customers.”