Assembly line for the 3-piece guide bar 3-piece and lightweight guide bars. We can proudly say that STIHL has stamped its mark on the modern chainsaw. That is not the only reason why we are constantly looking for improvements. With the aim of making the chainsaw with its cutting attachments ever lighter, we have also had a considerable influence on the development of the guide bar. Our 3-piece guide bar with 2 side plates and a recessed center plate is the most widely sold guide bar bearing the STIHL logo. The "lightweight" guide bar brings even greater weight savings to the user by means of a carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic body and a steel frame that acts as guide for the saw chain. The individual production processes, such as stamping, embossing, projection welding, inductive hardening and nose sprocket assembly are all integrated in a fully continuous production line. The production processes also include automatic test equipment for inspecting groove width and flatness of each part.

A 3-piece bar? How does that work? When you take a close look you will see that the bar consists of three steel plates welded on top of each other, two side plates and an intermediate spacer plate. How do you get the high strength of these bars? Do you utilize a special process? For the side plates, we only use material having a hardness of 40 HRC. The individual plates are joined together in the pressure-controlled projection welding press. What are the advantages compared to the solid bar, which only consists of a single piece? The 3-piece bar is about 40 % lighter. For example, with a length of 35 cm it has sufficient torsional resistance and is ideally suited for applications such as limbing. What are the individual production stages required before a bar arrives at my shop ready for sale? The bar is first stamped and then embossed, welded, induction hardened, assembled, painted, packed and finally shipped. All you have to do is to unpack it.