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Coating blade update
My recent experience has been very discouraging.
The blades must be made within 1 mil (0.001") tolerance to be usable.
At present, I have more than a 50% reject rate due to the machine shops < yes shops>, that I have been using. No one can make them. The temper on a 1" square bar of stainless steel causes stress that translates into a twist and bend when milled (or any other operation including water cutting) which makes for a 50% reject rate.
Therefore, my costs have gone up 2X. The next batch of blades will cost 2x the old price. And, I'm not making a profit. I am sorry, but this has delayed delivery dates and will increase prices. I'm sorry about this.
In fact, I wanna quit. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
This is costing me more than I can afford. I will be exiting this phase of emulsion coating ASAP.
Sorry.
PE
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Ron,
Do you know if grinding will bring about these flaws? I'm not totally familiar with the design of a coating blade, but I know that there are precision grinders to be found that, when used skillfully, properly, and thoughtfully, will produce very fine work down to .001
On the other hand, .001 is a very tight tolerance. It makes one wonder exactly what was used before the widespread availability of precision metalworking equipment was available. Any ideas from the depths and ages of Kodak?
Another thing to consider is that if you've got shops doing the work, then they obviously have a set of schematics to work from, which probably have tolerances listed. Why would it be costing you any more money, except maybe in materials, if the machinists are the ones getting it wrong 50% of the time?
I worked a while for a spring coiling company and we dealt with tolerance similar to your at times, but usually we had more dimensions to consider as well (things like that usually came up for customers from the medical device field). It was slow work, obviously, but it got done, and if it got done wrong, we had to go back and redo sometimes 10K parts at a material and time loss to ourselves.
Just a few thoughts...
-Patrick
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Patrick;
The blades must have 1/2" of material cut from the center by some method. They cannot be welded or assembled otherwise. The cutting relieves some internal stresses on the metal, and this causes a twist and bend which makes grinding and polishing very difficult, especially with the required tolerance of 0.001". To do this, they use a lot of 1" bar stock of 316 or 308 stainless and a lot of labor. It isn't cheap. They had to make 20 blades to get 10 good ones and of the 10, 5 were just out of tolerance. They had 0.001", but the tiny twist made it an uneven 0.001".
Seeing it would explain the problems.
So, 5 normal blades and 2 custom blades are out for refinishing. And, I only got 10 blades total when I expected 20. And, I had to pay for bar stock for 20.
PE
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Really sorry to hear about this setback Ron.
I can well imagine the problems you're having. I've seen how badly high grade SS warps when you hack half of a bar's thickness off.
Just a thought; Have you tried having the blades annealed after the heavy machining?
It would probably put the unit cost up a bit, but may well bring the reject rate down too.
Lens caps and cable releases can become invisible at will. :D
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To answer the question about Kodak, every emulsion coating lab had blades of the type needed for the job. Some labs had racks of them of different undercuts which were fixed in place and not adjustable as mine are.
If the blades cost Kodak a million dollars each, I guess they would have paid that just to get the job done, so the relative priorities and budgets cannot be compared. Kodak's were made in their own prcision machine shops.
I have seen paint doctor blades for sale made of aluminum. This is unsatisfactory for emulsion making due to the need for an appropriate anodized surface and due to the light weight. In any event, I've seen paint blades for sale for about $1200 for a 4" blade.
PE
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 Originally Posted by ben-s
Really sorry to hear about this setback Ron.
I can well imagine the problems you're having. I've seen how badly high grade SS warps when you hack half of a bar's thickness off.
Just a thought; Have you tried having the blades annealed after the heavy machining?
It would probably put the unit cost up a bit, but may well bring the reject rate down too.
After the bar is bent and twisted, annealing does not undo the damage. The twist and bend is still there. Some sort of retemper during or before the cut might work, but I've found no shop prepared to temper before or during a cut.
PE
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I've seen the Aluminium blades listed in various places, and I was amazed at the prices.
It looks like they might have the same trouble :/
Lens caps and cable releases can become invisible at will. :D
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Stainless steel is a bitch to work in. Any others metals that could be used? Brass or bronce would i think be a lot less prone to the problems you have with stainless.
Just a thought.
jan
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Jan;
Emulsions used with brass, bronze or aluminum are a big NO-NO. Metals that can be used are Stainless (any non-magnetic grade, but the higher the better), Nickel and Titanium. Of course, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Osmium and metals like that would be nice as well. 
Well, I take that back. The Osmium blade would probably weigh in at about 10 - 20 kg. IDK for sure, I would have to look up the density, but it is one of the heaviest of metals IIRC
PE
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Ron,
Would it be possible to use a low distortion steel like A1 and use hard chrome plating for chemical resistance?
Richard
Why are there no speaker jacks on a stereo camera?
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