Blade Control (Snap-off Blades)

Hello everyone.

As a new member of this platform, I'm happy to have my first post.

I am working for a cocoa & chocolate factory and trying to achieve Category A accrediation to the BRC-Global Standard for Food Safety.
Standard section 4.8.3.2 says "Snap-off blade knives shall not be used." But we need such blades especially for opening sacks of raw cocoa beans.
I searched for some types of safety knives, but i still haven't found what i'm looking for. :) (just like Bono).

Anyway, I'm open to any advises. Special design knives, blade control procedures, etc.

Thank you in advance,

Murat

Hello

I know there are safety knifes http://www.haccparti.../Products/b800m
We don't use the safety knifes to open the cartons, but the snap off blades. I suggested to use the safety knifes it, but they told me it didn't work. I guess you have to get use to the new cutting methode.

Anne

Hello everyone.

As a new member of this platform, I'm happy to have my first post.

I am working for a cocoa & chocolate factory and trying to achieve Category A accrediation to the BRC-Global Standard for Food Safety.
Standard section 4.8.3.2 says "Snap-off blade knives shall not be used." But we need such blades especially for opening sacks of raw cocoa beans.
I searched for some types of safety knives, but i still haven't found what i'm looking for. :) (just like Bono).

Anyway, I'm open to any advises. Special design knives, blade control procedures, etc.

Thank you in advance,

Murat

We have struggled to get safety knives that do the job too - As I am both head of Quality and Health and Safety Manager I have somewhat conflicting priorities here.. But there is a distinction between 'snap off blades' and regular 'stanley knive types'. The snap off blades have little grooves and enable the user to save money by deliberately breaking off bits of the blade as they become blunt. These are not permitted because it is impossible to tell if bits of the blade are missing or not. However the regular blades such as the Stanley knives are not 'safety' knives as such but the blade is single use and is inspectable. Also it is quite possible to get Metal detectable knives so that all the parts including the handle will get rejected by a metal detector. I sourced some from a UK company and some from the US.

http://www.safetyknife.net/index.htm

and

http://www.martor.co...ble.html?&L=788

Good luck in your search.

We have struggled to get safety knives that do the job too - As I am both head of Quality and Health and Safety Manager I have somewhat conflicting priorities here.. But there is a distinction between 'snap off blades' and regular 'stanley knive types'. The snap off blades have little grooves and enable the user to save money by deliberately breaking off bits of the blade as they become blunt. These are not permitted because it is impossible to tell if bits of the blade are missing or not. However the regular blades such as the Stanley knives are not 'safety' knives as such but the blade is single use and is inspectable. Also it is quite possible to get Metal detectable knives so that all the parts including the handle will get rejected by a metal detector. I sourced some from a UK company and some from the US.

http://www.safetyknife.net/index.htm

and

http://www.martor.co...ble.html?&L=788

Good luck in your search.

I am not a fan of Stanley knives, the ends of the blades snap off quite easily. I have used this type of knife with an enclosed blade before: http://www.detectame...nives-sk106.htm and there are some more hook types here

Safety Knife.jpg   5.1KB   22 downloads

Regards,

Tony

Thanks you all for your interest.

I got samples of a safety knife with a one-piece blade, which only comes out at the time of use. I thought it would be accepted, but the auditor said, thickness of the blade had to be increased. Knives on the links you gave seems OK. I hope they will be suitable for the standard.

Thanks again,
Murat

We don't use the safety knifes to open the cartons, but the snap off blades. I suggested to use the safety knifes it, but they told me it didn't work. I guess you have to get use to the new cutting methode.

Anne

It's almost the same reaction to any change you want to implement. My idea in the past was to get a few different types of safety knife and let them choose which one was to be the standard. As it happens we ended up having three types of safety knife because of the different operations they were doing. The main thing is they were all safe and they could do the job equally as well, so said the operators.

We did the same with safety footwear, hearing protection etc.

Hi Murat,

I work in the packaging industry also and as part of our BRC found that we had to move away from "snap off" blades. We have found that Martor baldes have a good seletion of retractable safety blades.
We did trials on the various blade types and placed orders from the positive feedback back from our production department.
We now have two standard knives in use which are the retractable for "heavy duty" cutting and also a flexable "full" bladed knife for general use. Both of these are to the BRC standard .
Blade Control can be hard to impliment depedent on the amount of personnel involved.
We have found that individual safes "per person" with electronic personel codes (we hold keys) have worked for us. There is a controlled amount of blades placed into the safe initially and its a "used blade for new blade" policy that controls the blade usage. Obviously you will require traceability at both sides of this procedure for full traceability throughout.

Hope this is of help?

Regards

JGH

Hello Murat,

I think that we are in the same situation as you are.
We are also looking for replacement of the snap-of-blade knifes.
During our last meeting, the safety manager came up with a catalogue which is very usefull.
You can access this catalog when you go to the following adress :

www.martor.de

Hope this will help you in your search for the right tools.

Friendly greetings,

Pieter

Hello everyone.

As a new member of this platform, I'm happy to have my first post.

I am working for a cocoa & chocolate factory and trying to achieve Category A accrediation to the BRC-Global Standard for Food Safety.
Standard section 4.8.3.2 says "Snap-off blade knives shall not be used." But we need such blades especially for opening sacks of raw cocoa beans.
I searched for some types of safety knives, but i still haven't found what i'm looking for. :) (just like Bono).

Anyway, I'm open to any advises. Special design knives, blade control procedures, etc.

Thank you in advance,

Murat

Hello Murat,

I think that we are in the same situation as you are.
We are also looking for replacement of the snap-of-blade knifes.
During our last meeting, the safety manager came up with a catalogue which is very usefull.
You can access this catalog when you go to the following adress :

www.martor.de

Hope this will help you in your search for the right tools.

Friendly greetings,

Pieter

Hi Pieter



I would say that the Easysafe knife looks suitable, I am not sure about the others.

Regards,

Tony

Looks like an old conversation, but we are looking to solve same issues. We use box cutter type knives to open bags of sugar, etc. We have a blade tracking program that was recently approved by our SQF auditor but his strong recommendation was to move away from these type knives and use a solid stainless knife that can be sent thru the dishwasher. I'm having a hard time finding cost effective knives that fit the bill.  He said the retractable blade knives often go in employee pockets and are not kept sanitary. (beside his concern of breaking blades) Putting them in a sheath seems to have the same sanitation problem as contaminated knives can go into sheath, knife sent thru dishwasher and then put back in dirty sheaths. Am I just spinning my wheels here?

I'm in a similar bind as well.  I work for a company who produces films for packaging and labeling.  We are currently undergoing our conversion to the BRC standard.  We haven't used snap-off blades on the shop floor for a long time but still use them in our labs to cut samples, retains, etc.  I've been tasked with finding a suitable replacement.  I trialed some ceramic knives from http://www.sliceproducts.com/products which cut film well enough but I'm getting almost all negative feedback from operators.  For one the blades don't extend long enough to cut around our retain templates.  Another told me the blades broke easily.  Does anybody know of a suitable replacement for a lab setting with cost being a large factor?  Having to replace stainless blades often will get expensive.

 

Thanks in advance!

Hi @nwells1024 - regarding your post on our Ceramic Safety Blades, we are not suitable for a food environment since our blades are not metal detectable.   To address your other comments:

- we do have longer blades available now vs. when you posted above comment 

- our blades are actually extremely durable, and much stronger than steel.  However, they can break, like metal, if excessive side load is applied to them

- for environments where you don't need metal-detectable we are proven to reduce injuries and installed by most of the Fortune-1000 to reduce costs and lower risks of lacerations

 

We are happy to supply complimentary samples of our safety knives and safety box cutters to qualified safety professionals - just visit our website at www.sliceproducts.com and contact us.

 

Finally, regarding snap-off blades in general, we suggest not using them in any situation - they are incredibly dangerous and contribute to HUNDREDS of thousands of lacerations a year.

 

You can download our safe-cutting PDFs and other documents on our website that will help you find the right safety knife - regardless of vendor - for your situation.

 

Thanks so much.

 

Sincerely

 

Mr. TJ Scimone

founder and ceo

Slice, Inc

www.sliceproducts.com

 

 

 

I'm in a similar bind as well.  I work for a company who produces films for packaging and labeling.  We are currently undergoing our conversion to the BRC standard.  We haven't used snap-off blades on the shop floor for a long time but still use them in our labs to cut samples, retains, etc.  I've been tasked with finding a suitable replacement.  I trialed some ceramic knives from http://www.sliceproducts.com/products which cut film well enough but I'm getting almost all negative feedback from operators.  For one the blades don't extend long enough to cut around our retain templates.  Another told me the blades broke easily.  Does anybody know of a suitable replacement for a lab setting with cost being a large factor?  Having to replace stainless blades often will get expensive.

 

Thanks in advance!