1. Buy your bakery machine knives from a quality, specialist blade manufacturer

Although this may seem like an obvious point, we want to emphasise how important it is that you buy your bakery machine knives from a quality, specialised machine blade manufacturer.

The reason the word specialised is italicised in that preceding sentence is because it marks an important point.

It’s important to buy machine blades from specialist manufacturers as they have the knowledge of metallurgy, cutting characteristics, materials and coatings that are required to produce truly superior machine blades.

Specialist machine blade manufacturers will also have the industry-specific knowledge that helps to create long-lasting blades that are highly suited to their specific applications. After all, machine blades for meat processing operations will be very different to the types of machine blades required for packaging operations.

When you choose a specialist machine blade designer and manufacturer for your bakery blades, you’ll also benefit from a high-level of quality control and assurance. Here at MRMK we have a dedicated quality assurance team who closely inspect every single machine blade that leaves our manufacturing facility here in Sheffield.

Therefore, when you buy bakery machine blades from MRMK, you can be assured you’re receiving a blade which has been carefully and considerately designed, manufactured and inspected.

In addition, by choosing to buy your bakery machine blades from a specialist such as MRMK, you’ll also be benefiting from the accumulated knowledge and experience that comes from designing and manufacturing machine blades, and machine blades alone, for many years.

For example, here at MRMK we’ve supplied machine blades to over 800 clients around the world.

Because of this, we never stand still and are continually being challenged to design and craft blades for a huge array of machinery and plant. As a result, MRMK is able to produce blades that are of OEM (and in many cases better) quality at a fraction of the price.

What’s more, because we are continually facing new challenges, we’re continually having to innovate. Our new InfinitEdge® coating technology is a perfect example of this.

So, when it comes to buying bakery machine knives that last, be sure to buy them from a specialist, quality machine blade manufacturer. Do that, and your blades are going to last far longer.

2. Keep your bakery machine knives clean

Machine knives have to deal with a considerable amount of wear and tear. Not only will they often be subject to multiple hours of repeated operation, they’re responsible for the extrusion, portioning and packaging of bakery products of wildly varying kinds.

Because of this, bakery machine blades tend to be exposed to moisture, dough, yeast and other substances which can contribute to erosion; particularly if these substances are not removed in a timely manner.

Therefore, it’s crucial that you keep your bakery machine knives as clean as possible.

Failure to do so can lead to pitting, erosion, and general uniform corrosion across the entirety of the machine blade. Should this occur, then the lifespan of the blade will be severely curtailed.

At MRMK we go to great lengths to ensure that our food-safe stainless steel is as corrosion resistant as possible.

In fact, we use materials such as stainless steel 420 and stainless steel 440 to produce many of our bakery machine blades. Why? Because these types of stainless steel are highly resistant to corrosion – especially when the blade’s surface is polished.

Nevertheless, even the most corrosion resistant stainless steel will eventually corrode if it’s neglected and not cleaned and maintained on a regular basis.

3. Select blades with quality coatings

As you may be aware, the use of suitable coatings can considerably expand the lifespan of bakery machine blades.

The addition of coatings to machine blades has a number of advantages including changing the material properties of a knife, without actually changing or compromising the steel’s inherent strength.

Some of the benefits of adding coatings to machine blades include:

• Extending the lifespan of a blade.
• Decreasing friction, speeding up cuts.
• Enhancing cutting performance.
• Imparting moisture resistance and corrosion resistance to a blade.
• Enhancing the strength and hardness of a blade.

By selecting the appropriate coating, you can absolutely make your bakery machine knives last longer.

Some of the coatings that are available are detailed below.

PTFE (Teflon®) non-stick coating

A PTFE non-stick coating is commonly used on machine blades in the food processing industry as its properties mean it can help to reduce plugging, corrosion and sticking during the cutting and portioning of bakery products.

Titanium Nitride (TiN) coating

Titanium Nitride is a bright gold ceramic coating typically applied to machine blades in the food processing industry as it is wear resistant, inert and reduces friction.

Titanium Carbon Nitride (TiCN) coating

This is a titanium-based coating, but with the addition of carbon. It has good adhesion, toughness and resistance to wear.

4. Honing and sharpening: know the difference

When it comes to making your bakery machine knives last longer, it pays to know the difference between honing and sharpening.

Honing refers to the process of realigning the existing edge of a knife. Whilst this may seem like a quick way of restoring the cutting performance of a machine blade, it’s very much the poor choice compared to sharpening.

Sharpening refers to the process of removing material from a knife in order to create an entirely new edge.

Sharpening is without doubt, the best way of renewing and refreshing the cutting performance of a machine blade.

So, if you want to keep your bakery machine knives in top shape and keep them cutting well for longer, you’ll want to secure the services of a company that can renew your blades in the right way.

5. Know when to replace your bakery machine blades

Whilst there are lots of things you can do to prolong the life of your bakery machine knives as we’ve detailed above, it’s an inevitable fact of life that blades do have a limited lifespan.

It’s important to recognise when your machine knives are past their best, as failure to renew machine blades in a timely manner can result in poor cutting performance, damage to processing machinery and downtime.

When you find that your blades can’t be reground and sharpened, it’s time to pick some new high-quality blades from the very best supplier you can find.

MRMK: the first choice for bakery machine knives

If you find it’s time to buy new bakery machine blades for your machinery and plant, then buy them from MRMK.

Why? Because we’re one of the world’s leading designers and manufacturers of premium machine blades. With over 800 clients across 50 countries worldwide, there’s a good reason the world’s leading bread and baked goods producers choose MRMK for their machine blades.

Explore MRMK’s machine blades for the bakery industry now

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