The Design Development of the Sliding Table Saw Towards Improving Its Dynamic Properties

Cutting wood with circular saws is a popular machining operation in the woodworking and furniture industries. In the latter sliding table saws (panel saws) are commonly used for cutting of medium density fiberboards (MDF), high density fiberboards (HDF), laminate veneer lumber (LVL), plywood and chipboards of different structures. The most demanded requirements for machine tools are accuracy and precision, which mainly depend on the static deformation and dynamic behavior of the machine tool under variable cutting forces. The aim of this study is to present a new holistic approach in the process of changing the sliding table saw design solutions in order to obtain a better machine tool that can compete in the contemporary machine tool market. This study presents design variants of saw spindles, the changes that increase the critical speeds of spindles, the measurement results of the dynamic properties of the main drive system, as well as the development of the machine body structure. It was proved that the use of only rational imitation in the spindle design on the basis of the other sliding table saws produced does not lead to the expected effect in the form of correct spindle operation.

Specific Cutting Forces of Isotropic and Orthotropic Engineered Wood Products by Round Shape Machining

The set-up of machining parameters for non-ferric materials such as wood and wood-based materials is not yet defined on a scientific basis. In this paper, a new rapid experimental method to assess the specific cutting coefficients when routing isotropic and orthotropic wood-based materials is presented. The method consists of routing, with different depths of cut, a given material previously machined to a round shape after having it fixed on a dynamometric platform able to measure the cutting forces. The execution of subsequent cuts using different depths of cut allows the calculation of the specific cutting coefficients. With the measurement being done during real routing operations, a method to remove machine vibrations was also developed. The specific cutting coefficients were computed for the whole set of grain orientations for orthotropic materials and as an average for isotropic ones. The aim of this paper is to present and validate the whole method by machining selected materials such as Polytetrafluoroethylene—PTFE (isotropic), Medium Density Fiberboard—MDF (isotropic), beech Laminate Veneer Lumber—LVL (orthotropic) and poplar LVL (orthotropic). The method and the proposed analysis have been shown to work very effectively and could be used for optimization and comparison between materials and processes.