Wood-chip formation in circular saw blades studied by high-speed photography

Abstract

Films of wood-chip formation were captured with a high-speed camera during rip sawing of wood with a circular saw blade. The saw blade diameter was 400 mm and the rotational speed was 3250 rpm. The saw blade had four teeth with rake angles of 0°, 10°, 20° and 30° to ascertain the influence of different rake angles. Wooden boards were cut along the side so that the camera could record the cutting sequence without any interference from material between the cutting teeth and the camera. Tests were made for green, dry and frozen green pine boards, for both counter-cutting and climb-cutting cases. In addition, some Mozambican wood species were cut. The films, recorded at 40,000 frames s⁻¹, show the cutting sequence along the trajectory of the tooth in question and the creation of the wood chip. Details such as the compression of the wood chip in the gullet, the movement of the wood chip inwards and outwards in the gullet and finally the exit from the gullet are visible. The chip size and chip movement depend strongly on the rake angle and on whether the wood is green, dry, frozen or unfrozen.

Keywords:

• Cutting
• ironwood
• namuno
• pine
• rip sawing

Acknowledgements

The authors express their gratitude to the European Regional Development Fund, Objective 2, Northern Sweden, via Tillväxtverket (the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth) and Vinnova (the Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems) for financial support.