Cutting or ripping blade

A cutting blade comprising a disc for rotation and having attachment means arranged in a center of rotation and provided around its periphery with teeth or like elements, said disc has provided therein slots arranged so as to form between mutually adjacent slots disc-material sections wherein;

• (a) the slots extend from a point located substantially adjacent a peripheral edge of the disc in a direction toward the center of the disc said slots being oriented substantially tangentially to a zone defined concentrically to said center;
• (b) the respective disc-material sections located between said slots converge toward the center of the disc and define said zone concentrically adjacent said center, said material section absorbing substantially all of tensile and compressive forces generated during high load operation;
• (c) said zone provided, upon occurrence of said high load, to take-up elastically substantially all changes in shape occurring primarily in the peripheral edge of the disc substantially without permanent shape deformation;
• (d) the disc material section separated from an adjacent material section by said slot having a width substantially in the range of 0.2-0.4 mm;
• and
• (e) each of the zones, one for each material section defines a portion of a circle concentric with respect to the center of the disc.