System for slicing silicon wafers

Abstract

An improved system is described which has at least one endless band saw blade that is characterized by a continuously regenerated cutting edge and is unidirectionally driven along a pair of courses extended in mutual parallelism through a cutting station located near the midportion of the courses. The blade is supported at the cutting station by pairs of guides continuously rotated through less than 360 deg of angular displacement during each cutting operation in order to continuously regenerate the blade supporting surfaces of the guide. Blade wobble is thus substantially eliminated.