Investigation of Cutting Force and Surface Quality in Frozen Wood Sawing Under Varying Influencing Factors to Improve the Energy- and Resource Efficiency of Sawing Processes

Abstract

Wood as a renewable material plays an important role in transforming society towards sustainability and climate neutrality. However, wood is a difficult material to saw due to its anisotropic and inhomogeneous properties. Currently, the adaption of process parameters due to varying wood temperature and moisture content are solely based on operator experience. This frequently results in unfavorable settings of process parameters leading to a drastic increase in energy consumption and poor surface quality of the sawn wood. This paper investigates the cutting force when sawing frozen spruce wood with a two tooth research saw blade and the surface quality of the resulting wood samples under varying influencing factors. The material properties temperature between 20 ℃ and −40 ℃ and moisture content as well as the kinematic factor cutting direction were observed. The results show that the cutting force of moist and wet wood increase with decreasing temperature and remain constant for dry wood. Additionally, the surface quality of wet and dry wood samples is improved when sawing wood with lower temperature values. Using these results, the operator can be supported by a data driven approach for the adaption of machining parameters, hence improving the energy- and resource-efficiency of the process.