Marking diamond blades to deter theft

Leach Lewis Plant is offering its customers a marking system for diamond-tipped saw blades in an effort to deter theft and aid recovery.

The firm distributes Norton Clipper blades and worked with Datatag (the company that manages the Cesar plant marking scheme) to develop a special label with a unique eight-character alpha numeric identity that can be attached to each saw blade. The tamper-proof labels chemically etch the number into the blade's surface, making it virtually impossible to obliterate and Datatag will maintain a database of blade and customer details.

Blades can cost between £100 and £200, and they are commonly stolen from construction sites and vehicles, but without unique marking it is virtually impossible to distinguish one blade from another, making theft difficult to prove.