A BONE SAW BLADE AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING A BONE SAW BLADE

摘要

A bone saw blade (10) includes a blade body (11) having a cutting section (14), a hub section (16) and a shank (18) located between the cutting section (14) and the hub section (16). The blade body (11) is first formed having a substantially uniform Rockwell hardness between approximately Rc 49 and Rc 63 throughout. Next a cathodic arc process is used to coat the cutting section (14) with a hard, wear resistant metal nitride coating (19). During the coating process, ion impingement on the surface of the cutting section (14) creates heat that beneficially anneals the cutting section. Significant annealing of the shank (18) and hub section (16) is prevented during the coating process by stacking the blade bodies together with blade blanks (38) that are formed without cutting section. The heat generated during coating is insufficient to raise the temperature of the large mass above the annealing temperature of the blade material. The resultant blade has a high strength shank and hub section.