December, 2004

Teter Machine Products Inc. of Edwardsburg, Michigan has developed a unique process of reconditioning knives for the corrugated industry. CEO Jack Teter, founder of Teter Machine and developer of this process, has been looking for a better way to recondition knives for the majority of his 39 years in the paper industry. "This is the result of 20 years in the box industry and 20 years in machinery building and design." Teter feels he has finally found the answer – and many converting plants agree with him.

The new process begins with an entirely different grinding process, verses the past, we now use more precision circular grinding machines with a much finer grit, (ansi b.1) wheel that runs with a constant flow of coolant. In the past wheels used were of a much rougher grit and no coolant was used. This resulted in the generation of excessive heat which removed the original temper from the steel, thus decreasing the life of reground knives drastically. By using the Teter Process, knives have been Brinell and Rockwell hardness tested before and after this grinding process with no noticeable loss of hardness.

Teter has also developed a new welding process for restoring chipped and damaged knives to their original dimensions, without loosing temper and greatly increasing the weld adhesion to the old knife. This has been accomplished by using a special hard wire developed originally for the Automotive Industry for repairing their metal stamping dies. With auditing these repaired knives for over four years in the converting plants, we have not yet been able to verify one weld chipping out or loosing it’s adhesion to the old knife.

Teter feels the proof is in the field, so they arranged for many of their customers to run their reconditioned knives against new knives and compare the quality and life of one verses the other. After numerous comparison runs, the Teter process trim knives ran just as long and in many cases had a better quality slit than the new. The male slot knives also ran as good as the new knife running alongside it when compared on quality of cut, and length of life. This new process is saving a minimum of 50%, verses the cost of new knives. Teter has also developed a shipping process via United Parcel Service, where they furnish two-way shipping containers for the box plants. In this process, the container is located right at the machines, the operator drops the bad knives into the container which is ready for U.P.S. pick up . therefore, creating less handling damage of the knives and labor savings for the plants when it comes to locating and preparing the knives for shipping.