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Market Report: Sawing & Cutting Revolutionary Rippa Phil Mist puts the latest cutting blade from DTAS through its paces, to determine whether it lives up to the manufacturer’s performance and versatility claims. Every so often, manufacturers introduce products that are described as being completely revolutionary. Few genuinely live up to such claims, and proper hands-on testing is the only way to judge their validity. So when DTAS launched the Rippa at the Executive Hire Show, I was eager to get the chance try it out for myself. It is described as a new type of circular saw blade, with large pieces of solid carbide fixed to its periphery, instead of diamond segments or TCT tips. Intended for use with an angle grinder, the eye-opening claim is that it will cut just about every commonly encountered material, except hard concrete and thick metal. Merely fitting a saw blade to an angle grinder is radical enough, let alone an operator actually being able to use it to cut trees or timber, rubber, thin steel, red bricks and cement blocks. It goes against every power tool principle I have ever learned. I tested the sample 230mm-diameter blade by cutting various types of wood, then I quickly sliced two pallets into small sections. I followed this by felling a sapling and then cut that into pieces, before successfully tackling a number of red bricks, cement blocks, thin steel and some aluminium strip, all without any great effort. I will admit to a fair amount of scepticism before I commenced the tests, and even during some of them, but I was quite honestly astounded by the Rippa’s performance. The blade is reversible, so if it becomes blunt during use, you can simply remove it, turn it round, refit it on the machine and use it in the opposite direction. I did this without any problems and was able to cut as before. In actual fact, however, during the testing, wear was negligible, and I could not blunt the blade despite the heavy-duty usage - although I certainly tried. The Rippa is also available in 300mm and 350mm diameters, which can be fitted to a petrol powered disc cutter and used for either wet or dry cutting. In addition, a 125mm version of the Rippa is available, and the 350mm product can be supplied with a bore diameter of either 20mm or 25.4mm. The Rippa blade is claimed by DTAS to replace a chainsaw, and it obviously can in many situations. It is, however, so aggressive on some materials that a 2,000watt angle grinder could prove quite a handful for an inexperienced operator. It may be that machines specifically designed to prevent ‘kick back’ would be the most appropriate to use with the Rippa. Even though the product can cut a substantial list of materials, there are limitations. It can, for instance, only be used as a cutting wheel and never as a grinding disc, and it will not cut thick metal over 5mm, nor hard concrete and other very hard building materials. Other than that, the Rippa certainly lives up to the claims made for it. It can effectively do the same job usually undertaken with a resinoid bonded abrasive cutting wheel, a circular saw blade, and many types of diamond blade. There is no doubt that, providing operators understand what the Rippa blade is fully capable of, then it can offer a whole new means of cutting. It is yet another example of the advances that are being made in the design of power tools and new accessories, which can enhance productivity and user safety. • T
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552470 Executive Hire News › Archives › June 2008 › Market Report › Revolutionary Rippa
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