A well know pharmaceutical company was processing a caustic, corrosive paper media on a packaging machine with a slitter disc. The company had tried several tool steels and coatings to reduce corrosion wear from the caustic acid, but the repair of these slitters disc would take an unacceptable 6 weeks. The machine had to be dismantled, a spare set of slitters installed, and the dull slitter components sent out for sharpening. The down time and cost of repair became a significant concern with the client.

 

Kennametal Stellite™ offered a Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) clad Stellite^® 712 slitter to the repair facility. The first sets of slitters were provided to the customer with the HIP/Stellite 712 combination. This combination proved to be a success. The machine shut down time has been reduced from nine times per year to just once per year, when the slitter discs are surface ground a few thousandths of an inch to restore the sharp edge.