Ratchet cable cutters are one of the first product groups of SHTOK. which appeared in the Russian market more 12 years ago. Years of accumulating the experience of professional installers, our own ideas, modernization of manufacturing facilities, adoption of advanced technologies and procedures of manufacture control, creation of our own design-and-engineering department and testing laboratory, all this helped us to create a product which is today a real breakthrough in the high-quality electrical installation tool field.
The ratchet cutter NS-70BS has a big number of significant features not only in comparison with its previous models, but also with all modern similar products of this price segment.
The new NS-70BS became a logical extension of the widely-known and well-established model of ratchet cutters SHTOK. Let’s take a closer look at the main changes of the model:
HIGHER BLADE STRENGTH
The steel used in production of the cutting blades of NS-70BS is alloyed in limited batches. This helps to totally control the chemical composition of the steel, more effectively make alloying and get rid off residual elements, thus we get a significant improvement of physical and structural properties of the finished product.
The technology of limited-batch alloying is more advanced in comparison with other technologies like large-batch steel alloying which was used before and is still used by many producers.
Another advantage of limited-batch alloying is that all workpieces pass a necessary manufacture step of metal forging: the steel become harder, large crystals crush into smaller elements making the metal structure finer and, therefore, more even and stronger.
Besides the improvement of inner metal structure, forging helps to reduce production costs and, therefore, the final cost of the cutters, minimizing the time of mechanical processing and, therefore, reducing the quantity of metal shavings.
INCREASED WEAR-LIFE
The next production step of NS-70BS is processing of workpieces on the most advanced milling multi-tool multi-axis CNC machines of rectangular control principle. That helped to get a constant geometric configuration of the blades: the size and outlines are the same in every batch, this considerably eases the process of warranty repair and post-warranty maintenance.
A special attention should be given to the unique line of automatic heat treatment (quenching and tempering) used in production of the cutting blades of NS-70BS:
- The human factor is totally excluded – all parameters of heat treatment are set and controlled automatically;
- Quenching is made in nitrogen blanket which gives an additional strength to the outter layer of the cutting blades;
- Deformation of thick workpieces during metal heating and cooling is minimized.
As a result of workpiece processing on the automatic CNC line the cutting blades of NS-70BS get unique indicators of constancy of hardness over time: the inaccuracy is only ±1 HRC in 10 000 workpieces.
The total set of measures for production and processing of NS-70BS's blades is aimed to improving the chemical composition and physical properties of the metal, increasing the wear resistance of the product, protecting the blades from corrosion and negative influence of environment. Today we are the only manufacturer of electrical installation tools in Russia which uses such high-tech procedures in production of ratchet cutters.
It is obvious that the cutting blades are the main part of ratchet cutters which directly comes in contact with a cable. However all parts of NS-70BS are improved – for protecting the metal of the telescopic handles from corrosion and negative influence of environment we use a special type of blacking.
IMPROVED BLADE CONFIGURATION
The modified shape of the cutting surface and special crescent-shaped notches on the blade helped to reduce the contact area with a cable, that, therefore, not only decreased the mechanical load on the blades, but also considerably decreased labour intensity of cutting process for a user.
IMPROVED ERGONOMICS
The first and, perhaps, the main change of ergonomic properties is the improved handles. Bigger diameter of the handles helps to considerably decrease area loading of an operator’s hand: now it is more comfortable and more pleasant to use NS-70BS.
The shape of the handle has also been changed – now the handle has a scroll for more comfortable tool holding in the hand. The design reliability of the telescopic handle mechanism is unique, no its equivalents in the electrical installation tool market of this price segment.
As a result of the whole set of modification measures we managed not only to preserve the time-proved reliability of SHTOK. ratchet cutters, but also to considerably improve strength properties, chemical and physical characteristics, ergonomics, all this made positive impact on on-exit technical characteristics of the tool: the ratchet cutter NS-70BS easily cuts steel wire-armoured and steel tape-armoured copper and aluminium cables of Ø75mm.
Another impressive result of the modification and blade improvement is that the ratchet cutter NS-70BS is the only tool of this price segment which can cut marine cable with the strongest armoured layer made of galvanized steel wire and with sealing layers.
A recognizable feature of the new cutter NS-70BS SHTOK. is the grey color of the blades. Only this blade color has been resulted by a new finish technology providing blade protection from corrosion and increasing their structural characteristics and durability.
