Deburring Plastic: Safe and Easy With Slice

This video shows how smooth and easy it is to deburr plastic with the Slice® 10513 Manual Pen Cutter. Deburring plastic, also referred to as removing flash, is part of the process of making mold-injected plastic objects. The Pen Cutter handles this with the familiarity and maneuverability of a thick pen, and it’s safe to use.

Putting the final touches on mold-injection-made objects requires deburring plastic, also referred to as removing flash: the material that leaks outside the edge of the mold.

This task requires a cutting or deburring tool that maneuvers well and has an effective blade. Whenever you’re deburring plastic parts, you’ll need to follow the shape of the area you’re cutting with a clean, smooth motion to create a nicely finished edge. A bulky tool won’t handle well, especially if you’re deburring plastic components, because these components are often small.

The wrong deburring tool blades—a rusty blade or one that’s too sharp or too dull, for instance—will make your job more difficult and dangerous. Traditional blades tend to have these issues, making them a safety manager’s nightmare. Only one manufacturer makes a plastic-deburring tool that features a safer blade: Slice®. Our patent-pending blade edge is safe to touch; it’s finger-friendly®.

A safer blade helps reduce lacerations, one of the most common workplace injuries. Reducing injuries improves worker morale and productivity, and saves the company many direct and indirect costs. Preventing injuries has numerous benefits, while experiencing injuries has none.

Handling a blade puts the user at further risk of lacerations, so it should be done as infrequently as possible. Changing blades also takes time and disrupts productivity. Slice blades are made of 100 percent zirconium oxide, an advanced ceramic. They’ve been tested to last up to 11 times longer than metal blades. This means fewer blade changes. In a mold-injection manufacturing setting, workers may be tasked with deburring plastic repeatedly. Having a longer-lasting blade is particularly important with tools that are used frequently.

Slide blades also feature these properties:

  • Never rust
  • Maintenance-free
  • Oil- and lubricant-free
  • Non-magnetic
  • Chemically inert

Within the Slice lineup of tools, the two models of pen cutters, the 10513 Manual Pen Cutter and the 10512 Auto-Retractable Pen Cutter, work particularly well as deburring tools for plastic objects. Each tool features a rubberized easy-grip slider that the user engages to expose the blade.

The manual tool allows the user to fix the blade at two different cutting depths, so you can choose the appropriate blade depth for the job. After use, the user re-engages the slider to retract the blade into the handle.

The auto-retractable cutter offers an extra level of safety: you must keep the slider engaged to keep the blade exposed. If you release the button—as would happen if you dropped the tool—the blade automatically retracts into the handle, preventing accidental lacerations.

Both tools ship with a 10404 rounded-tip blade and are compatible with the 10408 pointed-tip blade. Both these blade models are double-sided. When you need a fresh edge, flip the blade around. No tools are required to remove or replace the blade. Whether you use a pointed-tip blade or a rounded-tip blade depends on your application and your safety requirements.

Slice pen cutters handle with familiarity and maneuverability for righties and lefties alike. They’re about the same size as a permanent marker or thick pen. They’ll fit in a lab coat, apron, pants, or shirt pocket for portability, or use the lanyard hole for easy storage. The optional 10511 Pen Clip is another way to keep your tool handy.

The pen cutter handles are made of high-quality glass-filled nylon, a lightweight, but also tough and durable material. Slice tools are successfully used in many Fortune 1000 companies, in industrial, manufacturing, and other rugged environments.

In addition to working as a deburring tool, the Slice pen cutters are useful for general purpose tasks like cutting any of these materials:

  • Packing tape
  • Cardboard
  • Paper
  • Twine
  • Clamshell packaging
  • Tyvek®

Workplace health and safety is the foundation of a successful company and a satisfied, dedicated workforce. Slice provides the safer choice for deburring plastic.