Apparatus and method for automated honing of elongated straight-edged cutting blades

摘要

An apparatus and method for automated honing of elongated straight-edged cutting blades such as those used in the printing and binding industry for the trimming of books or pamphlets and the like, wherein a sharpened blade which has been ground on other equipment is thereafter registered and secured at a predetermined angle upon a moveable blade holder support of the apparatus hereof, which support is then cycled to longitudinally displace so that the blade edge is thereby brought into sequential engagement with progressively finer abrasive surfaces of a longitudinal array of cooperative upper and lower orbitally driven honing heads whereby on a single reciprocated pass therethrough the blade is efficiently finished to a smooth sharp cutting edge. In an alternate embodiment of the apparatus and method hereof it is the honing heads which are longitudinally reciprocated while the blade to be honed is held upon a stationary blade holder support.