Development of standard approach for sickle blade manufacturing

Abstract

The sickle blade used in the motorized palm cutter known as "CANTAS" provides fast, easy and safe pruning and harvesting for those hard to reach applications. Jariz Technologies Company is experiencing a problem in the consistency of sickle blade which was supplied by various blade manufacturers. Identifying the proper blade material with a certain hardness value would produce a consistent as well as a long lasting sickle blade. A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in the manufacturing of the sickle blades was suggested to ensure a consistent blade. From this study, the optimum temperature for hardening and tempering of SUP 9 had been identified as 850 °C for hardening and 480 °C for tempering. The final hardness after heat treatment for SUP 9 was around 55HRC.