Blade Wear Assessment of First Knife Set of Cane-Preparation Equipment

Document Type : Original Research Articles.

Authors

1 Guirga Sugar Factory, Sohag, Egyptian Sugar and Integrated Industries Company, Egypt

2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Assiut University, Egypt

3 Nag Hamadi Sugar Factory, Sohag, Egyptian Sugar and Integrated Industries Company, Egypt

4 Kom Ombo Sugar Factory, Sohag, Egyptian Sugar and Integrated Industries Company, Egypt

Abstract

A major problem that affects the proper functioning of cane knives is the durability of the knife blades which is affected by the accelerated wear of the cutting edge. Wear analysis was performed within the 2019 and 2020 seasons on locally produced knives that are typically used by the Guirga Sugar Factory. These blades are produced from rectangular 20 mm thick St.52-3 mild steel plates strengthened by hard facing with a hardness 360 HB welded layer. During the 2021 season, commercially supplied 500 HBW knife blades with trade name (Hardox 500) were used. In all experiments, blade wear was evaluated by means of the blade-area loss method. Lower wear rates were recorded significantly for commercial blades than for local blades. Commercial blades served the entire crushing season without the need for re-sharpening or replacement and with minimum downtime. However, eight commercial blades were broken and separated from the knife set during the entire crushing season, while stones' impact on local knife blades led only to distortions in blades and breakage of fitting bolts.

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