Apparatus for manufacturing a razor blade structure for shaving systems

Apparatus for manufacturing a razor blade comprising a metal foil strip with an array of apertures, each said aperture having an annular sharpened edge, the apparatus comprising:

• a punch structure,
• a pressure plate structure that cooperates with said punch structure and includes an array of apertures corresponding to the apertures in said metal foil strip,
• an array of punch members upstanding from said punch structure and being disposed int he apertures of said pressure plate structure, each said punch member having a configuration identical to the configuration of said annular sharpened edge and of slightly greater dimension than said annular sharpened edge,
• a die structure having a die recess of configuration identical to the configuration of said annular sharpened edge and of slightly greater dimension than said punch member,
• a structure for positioning said razor blade structure between said punch structure and said die structure, and
• a structure for moving said punch structure and said die structure towards one another to cold-work the portion of said annular edge portion immediately adjacent to the ultimate sharpened tip and to mechanically displace the ultimate tip,
• said apparatus being adapted to co currently impart a permanent bend int he portion of each annular edge portion immediately adjacent to the ultimate sharpened tip of each annular sharpened edge to provide supplemental facets that define a shaving angle relative to the plane of the metal strip of about 25.degree., and an exposure of about 0.03 millimeter,
• wherein each said punch member is of hardened steel and each has a spherical upper surface, a cylindrical body portion, and a spherical lower surface whose center of radius is coincident with the center of radius of said upper surface.