by Kip Hanson, senior editor

VERTICAL
INCLINATIONS
Still cutting structural steel with a horizontal bandsaw? It might be time to go vertical
T
hose that follow the machine
tool industry have probably
heard the news: in August
of 2018, Amada Holdings
Co. Ltd. of Japan acquired Marvel Mfg.
Co. Inc., maker of the Marvel brand of
metal cutting bandsaws, circular saws
and ironworkers since 1904.
And while Amada Marvel Inc. may be
a new name to those who’ve spent
years working with these ubiquitous
machine tools, national sales manager
Bill Verbrick assures his customers that • Ergonomics: A horizontal saw
it’s the same great equipment, but now
backed by the largest machine tool
builder in the world.
VERTICAL BENEFITS
Verbrick also tells manufacturers that
to process structural steel, a vertical
tilt-frame bandsaw is the best thing
since sliced bread.
“In the United States, at least, Marvel’s
vertical tilt-frame saws dominate the
market,” he says. “Some even refer to
any tilt-frame machine as a ‘Marvel-
style’ saw; there are that many of them
out there. This is especially true with
service centers and large fabricating
houses, where maximum throughput is
a necessity, but the tilt-frame’s slightly
higher price tag relative to a horizontal
is less of an obstacle.”
Price tag aside, Verbrick is quick to point
out that even smaller shops can realize
big benefits from a vertical tilt-frame
saw, including better blade life, shorter
setup times and improved part quality.
For the few fab shops that haven’t yet
seen the vertical light, there are several
reasons to move in that direction.
sits lower to the ground than a
vertical, making it more labor-
intensive to reach the workpiece
and raw material. With a vertical
saw, everything is right in front of
the operator, at a comfortable work
height. Not only is material handling
less strenuous, it’s also much easier to
line up the blade with a scribe mark
for manual sawing.
• Mitering: With most horizontal
mitering saws, the blade frame is
unable to rotate toward the shuttle,
which means the saw can miter in
only one direction. This is no big deal
for cutting parallelograms, but makes
The Amada Marvel 8-Mark-II manual vertical
tilt-frame bandsaw boasts an infinitely
variable drive, quick-action vise and
mitering to 45 degrees in either direction. good tilt-frame vertical saw can do.
it impossible to cut trapezoids (think
picture frames) without flipping the
material. Verticals don’t have this
limitation.
• Vibration: When a horizontal saw
pivots for a miter cut, the blade
is typically farther away from the
vise. This leads to less support and,
therefore, increased vibration, which
is a primary reason for premature
blade failure. With vertical saws, the
blade position relative to the vise
never changes, no matter how steep
the angle.
• Feed force: Not all horizontal saws
are gravity-fed, but those that are
tend to underfeed the blade at the
start of the cut and overfeed at the
end. With a vertical saw, the feed
force is consistent throughout the
cut.
The downside is that a vertically
oriented saw blade makes complete
and abrupt contact when engaging the
vertical surfaces found on squares and
H-beams, thus creating higher cutting
forces. The solution is to cant the blade
forward a few degrees, something any
This doesn’t mean that horizontal saws
don’t have their place, Verbrick notes.
For simple, straight-cut slugging of bar
stock or tubing, they do an excellent
job and are also less expensive, inch for
inch, than vertical tilt-frame saws. If a
horizontal is chosen, a double-column
machine generally provides better
results than a scissors-style horizontal,
especially with difficult materials or
where cutting forces are high, he notes.
February 2019 SP6
“For mitering, however, tilt-frame
verticals are absolutely the way to go.”
MAKING DECISIONS
One quick glance at the Amada Marvel
website reveals several models of
vertical tilt-frame saws, each with
its own configuration, control and
automation options. Where does a
potential saw buyer start? And what
Vertical tilt-frame bandsaws are the workhorses at any structural
steel processing facility.
differentiates these saws from their
competition? According to Verbrick,
there are several key factors any saw
buyer should consider, regardless of
whose logo is painted on the machine.
The first and probably biggest decision is
whether to go manual, semi-automatic
or full auto. In Amada Marvel’s case,
the terms are fairly self-explanatory.
“Some even refer to any
tilt-frame machine as a
‘Marvel-style’ saw, there are
that many of them out there.”
Bill Verbrick, national sales manager,
at Amada Marvel
February 2019 SP7

A common sight at metal service centers, vertical tilt-frame bandsaws offer
significant benefits for even small fabricating shops.
Manual saws such as the 8-Mark-II
require an operator to manually tip the
head and advance the raw material,
whereas automatic saws like the
800 Series PC3S do everything…
well, automatically, and can be
programmed to cut whatever angles,
lengths and quantities are needed.
“The 8-Mark-III, on the other hand,
is considered a semi-automatic
machine,” Verbrick says. “The mitering
ADDRESS THE STRUCTURE
Let’s say you’re sawing a batch of parts from
some 6-in.-high H-beam. Some of the cuts
are perpendicular, while others are mitered
to 45 degrees. What blade should you use?
A fine-pitch blade is the first choice for the
thin center section of the H but will quickly
load up on the much thicker ends. And
once the blade has been tipped for the
45-degree miter cuts, a quick calculation
reveals the material thickness has
essentially increased by around 40 percent.
One fortuitous outcome of Amada’s
acquisition of Marvel Mfg. is the
introduction of two new blades designed
to address this and other challenges of
structural steel sawing. The Amada Marvel
Eagle Beak VTR (vertical tilt range) is “an
function and column feed are both
automatic, but the material must be
positioned by hand.”
The type of shuttle mechanism
is also significant, at least with
automatic saws. Amada Marvel’s
are servo-driven and, therefore,
can be precisely calibrated, which
according to Verbrick, provides
far more accurate results than
hydraulic shuttles.
excellent choice for all mitering applications,
with a unique 3/6 pitch to accommodate the
variety in tooth engagement when cutting
structural shapes,” says Bill Verbrick, Amada
Marvel national sales manager.
The other new blade is the Eagle Beak SST
(structural steel teeth), which addresses
the chipping and tooth wear common with
interrupted cuts in lightweight structural
steel cutting.
“This particular blade has three tooth
designs,” Verbrick explains. “A protector
tooth prevents over-incision, a very sharp
tooth reduces cutting forces and a strong
tooth prevents chipping. Both products
launched in January and are proprietary to
Amada Marvel.”
According
to the
manufacturer,
Eagle Beak
saw blades
are designed
specifically for
the challenges
of structural
steel cutting.
February 2019 SP8
Verbrick is quick to point out that
even smaller shops can realize
big benefits from a vertical tilt-
frame saw, including better blade
life, shorter setup times and
improved part quality.
Watch this video to learn more about vertical vs. horizontal sawing
from Amada Marvel.
Direct force sensing electric feed is
an important option for shops that
cut large quantities of structural steel,
to minimize the havoc that varying
material profiles play on the blade,
and minimum quantity lubrication
(MQL) systems eliminate the mess of
flood coolant when used with I-beams
and tubing.
“Vertical tilt-frame saws aren’t limited
to structural steel, but because of their
mitering capability, they’re ideal for
fabricators,” Verbrick says. “Whatever
the application, though, I’m looking
forward to the opportunities we as
an organization see in joining with
Amada and adding their extensive
selection of metal cutting saws and
saw blades to our offering. It’s been
a win-win for both our companies, as
well as for our customers.”
AMADA AMERICA INC.
AMADA MACHINE TOOLS
AMERICA INC.
AMADA MARVEL INC.
February 2019 SP9
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