As featured on: Hose & Coupling World

With over 60 years of sawing and cutting experience, Specialty Saw is uniquely equipped to design, engineer, and produce professional-grade industrial blades. Built on a culture of commitment, the company has evolved into a leading blade manufacturer dedicated to exceeding customer expectations and developing innovative solutions. Its specialization in non-ferrous circular saw blades, coupled with its focus on providing a level of value that extends beyond merely offering a competitively priced product, make it highly sought after in a variety of industries.

Hose + Coupling World had the pleasure of speaking with Specialty Saw’s President, Dave Nagy, Vice President of Operations, Jeff Nagy, and Director of Sales and Marketing, Keith Cotter, concerning the company’s investment in its production facilities and systems, its quality assurance, and its endeavor to engineer solutions to the problems that professionals do not know they have.

By Angelica Pajkovic

Progressive Past

Established in 1952 as a distribution company, Specialty Saw Inc. has grown from a small family-run business to a family-run manufacturing enterprise with over 30 employees. Under the multi-generational management of the Nagy family, the company has surpassed the limitations of its competitors by evolving with the ever-changing markets. By the year 2000, Specialty Saw had begun the conversion process that led it to become the manufacturer it is today. “Rather than remaining stagnant, we chose to advance with the industrial industry,” explained Nagy. “Over the course of my 48 years with Specialty Saw we have transitioned from a buy and sell company, to a manufacturing company, and are now in the process of becoming a global manufacturing company.”

Located in the industrial heartland of northern Connecticut, the company is comprised of an assembly plant, a manufacturing plant and an office facility, which distributes its products across the United States. “As far as a global presence is concerned, we are growing every day,” expressed Cotter. “We have recently established solid distribution chains in the UK, are in negotiations to establish the same type of presence in the EU, and have distribution in the Middle East. With the addition of our stocking distribution in Canada, we are very much a multinational company whose products have evolved with it.”

Sawing Solutions

The quality of Specialty Saw’s products can be seen through the array of capabilities the current saw blades have to offer. The ability to cut billets, extrusions, castings, plate, rod, bar, pipe, and structural members as well as cross-sections that have irregular thicknesses, is a testament to the company’s ability to provide optimal sawing solutions with exacting tolerances for new materials, processes, and applications.

With 90% of its products made in-house, an unfaltering desire to provide optimal solutions, and a shop outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment, such as Vollmer CNC grinding centers, it is no surprise that Specialty Saw’s quality products are backed by an ISO 9001 2015 certification. “We follow a stringent process management control system to ensure that each product we offer is made with the highest quality materials and tested for optimal safety assurances,” explained Cotter.

In addition to manufacturing the blades, Specialty Saw offers service centers to ensure that each blade can continually perform at its optimal level. “Our blades are not a throwaway product,” stated Nagy. “We hold reconditioned blades to the same tolerances as a newly manufactured blade. A reconditioned blade is sharpened on the same equipment by the same operators that made the blade from scratch. Everything is built to be able to be repurposed, reconditioned, and put back out into the field.”

Product Evolution

While Specialty Saw specializes in manufacturing nonferrous carbide circular saw blades that run on a wide variety of production saws, it is its innovative Clean-Cuts™ hydraulic hose cutting system that has made a significant impact on the industrial hose industry.

In 2005, Specialty Saw widened its portfolio to include a cutting system and blade that would safely cut hydraulic industrial, pneumatic, high pressure and specialty hoses. Unlike the abrasive saw, which was traditionally the standard industry tool used to cut specialty hoses, the Clean-Cuts™ system easily cut through the full range of hydraulic hoses without producing large quantities of smoke and debris.

“A number of our products have evolved from an ability to recognize industry problems that the industry itself has not yet recognize,” stated Nagy. “The Clean-Cuts™ system was developed after a client came to us wondering how to cut a 2”, 6 wire hose. Although we were versed in cutting steel, we were unsure of how to effectively complete the task. After determining that the only prevalent means of cutting the hose involved a messy and somewhat risky procedure, we knew we had to devise a better solution. With the aim to meet the needs of the small five-person hose shops, we took our established blades and designed a machine to safely cut industrial hoses. By 2007 we had started making our own machines, joined NAHAD, and brought the solution to market.”

The Clean-Cuts™ hydraulic hose cutting system is a technology that uses a toothed knife which cuts the hose with the backs of each tooth, so the knife does not take a kerf. The saw simultaneously bends the hose into the blade spreading the cut edges to avoid burning and smoking. The impressive range of the Clean-Cuts™ line includes: the 7″ HYDM 70 shop saw, which has a cutting capacity of 1-1/4″ ID x 4 wire hydraulic hose, the 10” HYDM bench mount, which has a cutting capacity of 2″ ID x 6 wire hydraulic hose, and the 14″ HYDM bench mount, with a cutting capacity of 2″ ID x 6 wire hydraulic hose and 5″ OD industrial hose. Each model’s focus on reducing debris and toxic fumes makes the unit much safer for end users working in a shop.

With safety and contamination control as its primary focus, Specialty Saw began enlightening hose suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors of the advantage of using its engineered solution.

“We were able to quantify the value of our product very early on,” stated Cotter. “By calculating the level of contamination control and quantifying the cost of downstream equipment failure due to contamination, we are able to prove how using a Clean-Cuts™ machine improves the operators overall experience. We are providing a value-add for their customer, that they are able to market.”

A Passion for Innovation

The passion with which Specialty Saw employees approach each of their projects, is evident through not only their dedication to ensuring the safety of each operator, but to creating a diverse range of high quality products. Backed by the mantra, ‘we engineer solutions to people’s sawing problems’, the company prides itself in its commitment to cultivating relationships with its customer’s and providing them with the equipment they need to successfully complete whatever cutting project comes their way.

In order to provide these solutions, the company is continually investing in new automation processes and state-of-the-art technologies. “We have lots of new PLC (programmable logic controller) programmable equipment, as well as robotic machine centers that allow us to run lights out which allows us to constantly provide optimized and hassle-free service,” stated Cotter. “We are also continually launching new innovative products to meet a boarder range of industry needs, such as the new 22” machine for cutting up to 10” hoses and the mobile saw.

The HYDM 2200 industrial hose saw, offers a much safer alternative to kneeling on the hose to cut it. With the ability to cut 8” hoses, a 10 HP fan cooled motor, a 220 VAC with 24 Amp and 2,250 RPM as well as a 110 V magnetic starter, the hydraulic hose saw seamlessly cuts through both metal and rubber materials.

The upcoming launch of the HYDM 4500, will similarly offer a practical alternative to using hacksaws or boxcutters to cut mobile hoses. As a 4 ½” machine, the mobile machine weighs under 15 pounds and is run with either 110 power or lithium ion battery power.

“With the addition of these two saws to our Clean-Cuts™ product line, we are able to engineer solutions to fill the unrealized gaps in the market,” stated Nagy. “By pursuing the endeavor to solve these cutting and sawing gaps, we are receiving unique responses from those who are cutting big hoses by hand. Simply put, they keep asking, ‘Where Have You Been?’”

Looking Forward

Specialty Saw offers its customers world class, specialty blades and saws customized and tailored for every application and demand. As a family-run business, it makes every effort to ensure it all those involved with the company, from an employee to its clients, feel like they are a members of the family. By continually expanding its product lines and optimizing its production capabilities, it has received positive feedback from the global market. “One of the best compliments we get is when we show the customer something new and they simply say ‘Wow’, and ‘What else can you do’?” said Nagy. “Instead of glazing over yet another catalog, we have the opportunity to open end users’ eyes to new and exciting solutions.”