An Investigation of the Optimal Cutting Conditions in Parawood (Heavea Brasiliensis) Machining Process on a CNC Wood Router

Abstract

In this research, series of machining processes of parawood were carried out on a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) wood router to investigate the effect of various machining parameters such as spindle speed, feed rate and depth of cut on the surface quality of parawood machined surface and the wear of the Tungsten Carbide (TC) tool. Using the Design of Experiment (DOE) and statistical methodologies, it was concluded that the optimal cutting conditions for the range of machining parameters studied in this work considering the surface quality are the spindle speed of 12,000 rpm, the feed rate of 180 ipm and the depth of cut of 0.0625 in. In addition, the conditions with the least cutting tool wear was found at the spindle speed of 15,000 rpm, the feed rate of 360 ipm, and the depth of cut of 0.0625 in. The regression model was also obtained to predict the nose width and the surface roughness in each cutting condition. The results provide more understanding on the parawood machining process in order to
identify the optimal cutting conditions in which high quality machined surfaces with less surface roughness, less tooling cost, less waste materials, and lower production time are obtained. As a result, the selection of optimal machining parameters can be greatly benefited to the parawood furniture manufacturing industry in terms of productivity improvement.