It's A Daily Grind In Oxford | Accu-Grind cuts through to manufacturers
Precision may not be the first word that comes to mind along a road called Industrial Park West in Oxford.
When I pulled in early one recent morning, the park looked more like a ramshackle collection of corrugated steel buildings dropped into the woods along Route 12. There was a big brindle-colored Boxer dog patrolling the road in front of one business and the whole area looked forgotten.
Sharp Business
But then I caught sight of Accu-Grind of New England. Accu-Grind had a nice sign that was legible from the road and it looked as if people actually work there. I figured Accu-Grind was yet another of the seeming millions of machine shops that occupy the industrial parks of our region, but it’s something far more interesting. There are Zambonis involved.
The company, in addition to manufacturing and servicing a wide range of industrial knives, also sharpens and sells ice resurfacing blades used on the familiar machines made by Zamboni, Olympia and Ukko.
I’ve loved knives since I was a kid. It’s not as sinister as it sounds. When I was in Boy Scouts, my father taught me how to sharpen knives with a whetstone and to this day, I keep all of my kitchen knives razor sharp.
So I was excited to learn that Accu-Grind manufactures and services industrial knives for a number of industries, especially those that have been and are now major components of the region’s economy.
The old school industries for which Accu-Grind makes and sharpens blades include textiles, paper manufacturing and printing.
However, the bulk of Accu-Grind’s business is in the plastics industry. The company can make and service the blades used in the pelletizers, granulators, dicers, pulverizers and feed rollers used by plastics manufacturers. The blades appear to have nothing in common with ordinary knives or blades. Pelletizers look more like wide gears, dicers look like massive, blunt drill bits and pulverizer blades are disc-shaped and look a lot like CDs.
One thing they all have in common is that they are put though a staggering amount of work and are expensive to replace.
Manufacturers rely on companies like Accu-Grind to keep those blades in perfectly sharp working order and in the event that those blades do fail, the company has staff on call at night and on weekends to minimize downtime at manufacturing plants.
There are a couple of applications for Accu-Grind that, along with the ice resurfacing blades, are probably more familiar to the average Joe. Those applications are in wood working. The company sells, services and sharpens circular saw blades, planer blades and chipper blades. Anyone who’s ever tried to accomplish anything with a dull, or even somewhat dull, circular saw blade knows how important it is for those things to be as sharp as possible.
Other businesses at Industrial Park West include A&T Upholstery, Wingfoot, a tire service center, and Hazard Marine.
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