Easy clearance when "wrapping" houses

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• What was needed: A single-roller lubrication-free and cost-effective linear guide
• Requirements: mobile, precise and torsion-free movement of the saw blade at any desired angle
• Industry: Construction industry
• Success for the customer: very clean cuts at high speed and simple operation

The Bader metalworking shop in Kißlegg has opened up a new business segment with its easy-to-operate insulation pull saw and has already received several awards. Series production of the innovative tool is now starting, which is in vogue because "proper" insulation is part of every new construction project and energy-efficient refurbishment is also widespread. Various maintenance-free bearings from the igus® construction kit are used in the saw - including a drylin® linear bearing in the guidance of the saw blade.

A manufacturer of wood fibre insulation boards requires a pull saw for the precise cutting of insulation boards. On the one hand, the saw should be mobile, but on the other hand it should also be able to handle large board thicknesses and not just 90° cuts, but also angled and mitre cuts, as is often required for the energy-efficient renovation of existing buildings. There was no such tool. This is because the insulation boards are difficult or impossible to cut with conventional saws due to their fibres, especially not in thicknesses of 200 millimetres and more and certainly not for mitre and complex double mitre cuts.
One of the challenges is therefore the precise and torsion-free movement of the saw blade at any desired angle. The insulation layers of the building envelope are becoming thicker and thicker: 180 millimetres is the standard. It is not only the thickness that is important, but also the precise and joint-free laying of the insulation boards on site. Otherwise, thermal bridges are created that severely impair the insulating effect and encourage mould. All bearing elements must be free of lubricants, because sawdust settles on the guidance, which in combination with lubricants leads to sticking.

The metalworking shop Manfred Bader GmbH in Kißlegg / Allgäu developed the first prototype of an insulation pull saw, which consisted of a simple trestle with saw and stop-dog and was already equipped with igus® bearings. This saw was made available to various companies. The pilot series was well received by the users: The saw delivers very clean cuts at high speed. It is easy to operate. The extraction system, which was developed at great expense, ensures clean working and use in enclosed spaces. For example, in wall prefabrication and element construction. Based on the feedback from these practical tests, optimisation followed. This included an angle fence and the integration of a line laser. The HDZ 720 saw is now ready for series production. It allows the cutting of insulation boards with a maximum length of 2,000 millimetres and a thickness of 260 millimetres (for angled cuts) or 200 millimetres at a 45° angle. A single-roller lubrication-free linear guide of the type drylin® WJRM-01-20 is used for this purpose. The single-roller guide element is also cost-effective. And it also fulfils its task perfectly from the operator's point of view: only a tensile force of 3 to 4 kilograms needs to be applied to move the 35 to 40 kilogram saw unit. In the meantime, the metalworking shop has already received several awards for its innovative product, which has established a new business segment: the Bavarian State Prize 2015, the Innovation Prize of the Ravensburg District Economic and Innovation Promotion Agency (WIR) and the VR-innovations Prize for SMEs regional 2015.

Manfred Bader also used other bearing elements from the igus® construction kit, which he was already familiar with from the original product programme, the doors and gates with lifting windows. They have always had good experiences with the igus® bearings, even in adverse environmental conditions. The protective cover in front of the saw blade, which lowers automatically, is also guided by a linear bearing from the drylin® programme. The inclination of the saw blade is set using a trapezoidal nut, the mitre angle is set using an igus® screw drive, and the Tribo-Tape from igus® on the rotating stop-dog ensures easy movement of the stop-dog. An energy chain is used for the energy supply from the base frame to the saw blade drive.