PCB Copper Foil Mill Achieves 420,000m Stable Blade Life After Custom Shen Gong Carbide Slitting Knives

2026-07-24

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Customer Production Challenges

This PCB copper foil mill manufactures 6μm ultra-thin electrolytic copper foil.

The mill enforces rigid slitting specs: residual copper dust ≤1μm, slit edge burr ≤5μm.

Standard uncoated carbide slitting blades were used originally, creating recurring production bottlenecks.

Bare carbide substrate bonds easily with copper web, causing heavy built-up edge and micro chipping on cutting edges after short run times.

These standard blades only deliver consistent qualified slitting from 120,000 to 200,000 meters.

Shed copper particles contaminate finished foil, resulting in pinholes and circuit short-circuits on PCB & FPC products, driving high scrap ratios.

Shen Gong Customized Technical Solution

Shen Gong’s on-site engineering team collected full production data including copper foil ductility, continuous slitting tension and line speed to analyze the root cause of adhesion and premature edge wear. We developed custom slitting blades adopting an ultra-fine grain WC-Co cemented carbide substrate paired with a low-friction nano anti-stick coating. Key optimized technical parameters:

· Ultra-fine grain carbide grade balances wear resistance and edge toughness to avoid micro chipping
· Mirror-polished cutting faces reduce copper adhesion and built-up edge generation
· Special nano coating minimizes copper particle shedding during high-speed slitting
· Edge geometry revised to lower shear force for delicate 6μm thin copper web

All dimensional tolerances match the customer’s existing rotary slitting equipment without extra modification to knife holders. The optimized blade geometry stabilizes cutting clearance and uniform slit width across full roll production.

Measurable Improvements

· Stable qualified slitting service life elevated from 120,000–200,000m to 420,000m
· Copper dust residue and slit edge burr fully comply with internal quality standards throughout full blade lifecycle
· Sharp edge retention eliminates frequent machine downtime for blade replacement
· Finished copper foil scrap loss cut drastically, lowering total production expenditure

Long-Term Cooperation

After successful pilot testing on one slitting line, the customer rolled out Shengong custom carbide slitting blades to all mass-production slitting machines. The factory also plans to adopt Shengong’s full range of precision slitting tools for foil, film and metal processing within 2026. Stable cutting quality and doubled service life deliver clear cost savings on blade procurement, labor downtime and finished product waste, making Shengong the exclusive long-term cutting tool supplier for their electronic copper foil division.

About Shen Gong

Shen Gong manufactures full series of cemented carbide slitting knives for copper foil, corrugated，packaging film, paper, non-ferrous metal and precision converting industries. With 26 years of carbide blade R&D and manufacturing experience, all products are self-produced under full vacuum sintering, precision grinding and professional coating workshops. We provide full customization for non-standard slitting knives compatible with global mainstream slitter brands. Edge inspection is carried out under 300x–1000x magnification to guarantee consistent micron-level precision.

For technical support or custom blade inquiries, contact: Howard@scshengong.com