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IPRT Company Assistance Success Story
As Good As Sliced Bread
Paul Berge, a metallurgist with IPRT Company Assistance, worked with Hansaloy Corp. to evaluate its bread-cutting blades, helping the company to increase quality, raise productivity and better serve customers. Hansaloy Corp., Davenport, Iowa, makes steel blades for the baking industry, where they are used to slice bread at 80 loaves per minute. Hansaloy experienced problems with some of its blades breaking in the field, which was bad news for its customers, since production would have to be stopped and all of the pieces of metal would have to be located. The company moved quickly to evaluate and solve the problem, bringing in materials experts from IPRT Company Assistance. Finding a DifferenceThe company knew the broken blades were being made from the steel from one particular supplier but could not determine what caused the material to break since it met required hardness specifications. So Steve Wright, Hansaloy president, contacted IPRT Company Assistance and sent three samples of stock steel from different suppliers to Paul Berge, an IPRT metallurgist. Berge first consulted with John Verhoeven, distinguished emeritus professor of materials science and engineering at ISU and an expert in steel. The two concluded that the problem probably involved the heat treating of the steel. Even so, it can be difficult to determine if steel has been properly heat treated. Berge, however, applied a technique he learned during graduate school. Using a special etchant, Berge was able to make the cementite carbide particles of the steel jump out under the microscope. “The problematic steel had relatively coarse cementite particles all over,” Berge says. These cementite particles were not getting dissolved into the steel during heat treatment, making it hard but too brittle. Berge also found a big difference between this steel and that of the other suppliers. “That told us there was a fundamental difference in how the material was being heat treated.” Stopping LossesHansaloy looked to its supplier for a resolution. To aid Hansaloy, Berge produced a written report discussing the microstructure of the problematic steel in comparison with the other suppliers’ steels and the heat treatment process’s potential effect on brittleness. The supplier reworked the steel and samples were sent to IPRT to verify the reduction of both the number and size of the carbides. Wright is appreciative of the assistance. “Paul understood exactly what we needed the first time we talked,” he says. “The answer was not obvious, but he accomplished the work and gave us his report very quickly.” He estimates that the problem cost his company $250,000 in lost sales last year. “Had it gone on, the loss would have been much greater,” Wright says. He adds that the effort will prevent |
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