IBC® - Band sawing 'Intelligent Blade Control'®

IBC blade monitoring & control management systems achieve
new levels of even greater cutting control & production efficiency.

IBC achieves maximum cutting performance, blade life and overall process efficiency

The Stockholding sector are seeing significant efficiency gains when cutting metals, through using the latest fully automatic, straight-cutting band saws and the significant advantages achieved from the very latest control and management systems, particularly Intelligent Blade Control® (IBC®). IBC is a Behringer fully integrated blade management and control system that influences cut accuracy, blade life and overall cycle times.

The evolution of automatic band sawing machine monitoring and cutting control has greatly advanced in recent years, achieving evermore sophisticated levels of control and efficiency. These advances in parallel with improvements in band technology and TCT (Tungsten Carbide Tipped) in particular, have given saw manufacturers even greater opportunities to improve cutting performance, leading to the latest Intelligent Blade Control (IBC) from Behringer, a multi-functional, fully integrated single option, blade monitoring and cutting control system.

IBC incorporates New Blade Run-in, Dynamic Cutting, Band Deflection Monitoring and Material Retraction, all NC controlled.


IBC incorporates a number of long established, tried and approved Behringer technologies, plus some newly introduced features that bring a collection of key benefits to ensure greater cutting accuracy through the monitoring and management of machine and band saw ‘real-time’ performance. These benefits include; ‘New Blade Controlled Run-in’ to ensure that the critically important initial cutting period of a new blade is such that long-term blade performance and life is maximised; ‘Dynamic Cutting’, which auto-senses the sawing blade load at cut entry and controls blade velocity and down-feed to enable sound bedding-in and penetration of the blade cut, before optimum down-feed and velocity are applied; ‘Saw Band Deflection Monitoring’, whereby sophisticated sensing of any blade run-out from operator preset tolerances, is auto-detected, monitored and corrected, or the sawing process is terminated and reported on the machines LCD control screen as an error message; ‘Material Retraction’, which automatically creates a small clearance between blade and material after cut completion, to ensure that the return of the blade does drag across the cut face, preserving cut face integrity and avoiding any potential blade damage. The combination of these sawing monitoring, control and reporting features combine into the single, Behringer IBC option.

Saw Band Deflection Monitoring is of particular interest and a feature that primarily benefits the cutting of solids. It’s a capability that Behringer first introduced to their machines around 15 years ago, gradually refining the technology and its CNC software integration into the present input and reporting via the machines LCD control screen. Setting a level of acceptable blade wander cut accuracy, enables machine operators to pre-set the level of straightness variance thresh-holds, to suit the accuracy required for the intended final use of the cut material. Over tight tolerance control for example when not required, causes small but unnecessary added control time and a consequential extension of overall cut cycle times. An operator first inputs via the machines control panel the metal type and diameter, or cross sectional dimension, cut-length and batch quantity of the material, the saws computer then automatically computes and sets, optimum blade speed and feed to suit.

With a new blade, the operator can also simply select a New Blade Run-in mode to ensure best blade start-up operation during the first cut to help maximise potential blade operating life. Following keypad input of the required outer-limit of cut length/squareness accuracy, the operator can also select a first thresh-hold monitoring level of any blade run-out. For example, if + or - 0.2mm is the upper limit of acceptable run-out, an automatic monitoring and control panel warning and correcting procedure can be set at a preferred first thresh-hold limit, for example at 0.1mm. The Band Deflection System would automatically reduce band down-feed, if the first 0.1mm threshold were reached and then auto-checks the degree of run-out some 30secs later. If the first threshold tolerance has not been exceeded and/or is corrected, the saws down-feed will revert to its full-speed, default setting. If the band has continued to wander, up to or beyond the first thresh hold run-out limit, then a further auto-reduction in down feed occurs. A final automatic monitoring 30secs later, reverts to the full default blade down-feed if correction has occurred to within the set limits, but if run-out has continued up to the outer final set limit, the machine shuts down and shows a warning error message within the control panel. If shutdown is activated, it enables the operator to check for likely reasons for the out of limits run-out and correct the situation. Importantly, this procedure avoids the potential scrapping of material if the machine were allowed to continue to complete a batch run while operating outside the required straightness tolerance.

The impact of IBC together with other significant advances in overall cutting times, with some machines cutting some 10 times faster than was possible only 5 years ago and as accurately or even better, has given end-users, particularly value-added stockholders, new competitive opportunities to satisfy their customers cut-to-length demands.

Issued Jan 2008