Lateral forces determine dimensional accuracy of the narrow-kerf sawing of wood.

The shrinking global forest area limits the supply of industrially usable raw resources. This, in combination with the ever-increasing consumption of timber due to population growth can lead to the lack of a positive balance between the annual volumetric growth and consumption of wood. An important innovation toward increasing environmental and economic sustainability of timber production is to reduce the volume of wood residues by minimizing the sawing kerf. It results in higher material yield but may impact the dimensional accuracy of derived products. Therefore, the cutting tool geometry as well as the sawing process as a whole must be carefully optimized to assure optimal use of resources. The goal of this study is to better understand the causes of machining errors that occur when sawing wood with saws of varying thickness of kerf, with a special focus on re-sawing thin lamellae performed on the gang saw. Numerical simulations were tested against experimental results, considering influence of diverse components of cutting forces, in addition to the initial and operating stiffness coefficients of the saw blade. It has been demonstrated that asymmetric loads from the cutting process for the scraper saw blade can cause sawing inaccuracies. The simulation methodology developed in this research can be straightforwardly extended towards determination of optimal geometry of other cutting tools, particularly with the reduced sawing kerf. This may lead to more sustainable use of natural resources as well as an increase in economic gain for the wood processing industries.

Recovering Evaluation of Narrow-Kerf Teeth of Mini Sash Gang Saws.

Sash gang saws with narrow-kerf saw blades are used in the production of glued laminate flooring elements in plants where dry technology is applied. This means that boards or friezes are sawn into top layer lamellae in dry conditions (moisture content of about 10-12%) from expensive wood species, often exotic. The object of this research was stellite-tipped teeth of narrow kerf saw blades sharpened under industrial conditions. A NIKON ECLIPSE Ti-S microscope equipped with a NIKON DS-Fi2 recording camera was used to take pictures of teeth, which were analysed in a graphical software to measure the radii of the main cutting edges. The high-quality images obtained were used to determine the values of the rounding radii of the cutting edges. It was noted that the quality of edges regenerated in industrial conditions, some of which had chipping, was lower than that of brand new saw blades.

Surface Roughness Evaluation in Thin EN AW-6086-T6 Alloy Plates after Face Milling Process with Different Strategies.

Lightweight alloys made from aluminium are used to manufacture cars, trains and planes. The main parts most often manufactured from thin sheets requiring the use of milling in the manufacturing process are front panels for control systems, housing parts for electrical and electronic components. As a result of the final phase of the manufacturing process, cold rolling, residual stresses remain in the surface layers, which can influence the cutting processes carried out on these materials. The main aim of this study was to verify whether the strategy of removing the outer material layers of aluminium alloy sheets affects the surface roughness after the face milling process. EN AW-6082-T6 aluminium alloy thin plates with three different thicknesses and with two directions relative to the cold rolling process direction (longitudinal and transverse) were analysed. Three different strategies for removing the outer layers of the material by face milling were considered. Noticeable differences in surface roughness 2D and 3D parameters were found among all machining strategies and for both rolling directions, but these differences were not statistically significant. The lowest values of Ra = 0.34 µm were measured for the S#3 strategy, which asymmetrically removed material from both sides of the plate (main and back), for an 8-mm-thick plate in the transverse rolling direction. The highest values of Ra = 0.48 µm were measured for a 6-mm-thick plate milled with the S#2 strategy, which symmetrically removed material from both sides of the plate, in the longitudinal rolling direction. However, the position of the face cutter axis during the machining process was observed to have a significant effect on the surface roughness. A higher surface roughness was measured in the areas of the tool point transition from the up-milling direction to the down-milling direction (tool axis path) for all analysed strategies (Ra = 0.63-0.68 µm). The best values were obtained for the up-milling direction, but in the area of the smooth execution of the process (Ra = 0.26-0.29 µm), not in the area of the blade entry into the material. A similar relationship was obtained for analysed medians of the arithmetic mean height (Sa) and the root-mean-square height (Sq). However, in the case of the S#3 strategy, the spreads of results were the lowest.

Effect of the Drying Method of Pine and Beech Wood on Fracture Toughness and Shear Yield Stress.

The modern wood converting processes consists of several stages and material drying belongs to the most influencing future performances of products. The procedure of drying wood is usually realized between subsequent sawing operations, affecting significantly cutting conditions and general properties of material. An alternative methodology for determination of mechanical properties (fracture toughness and shear yield stress) based on cutting process analysis is presented here. Two wood species (pine and beech) representing soft and hard woods were investigated with respect to four diverse drying methods used in industry. Fracture toughness and shear yield stress were determined directly from the cutting power signal that was recorded while frame sawing. An original procedure for compensation of the wood density variation is proposed to generalize mechanical properties of wood and allow direct comparison between species and drying methods. Noticeable differences of fracture toughness and shear yield stress values were found among all drying techniques and for both species, but only for beech wood the differences were statistically significant. These observations provide a new highlight on the understanding of the effect of thermo-hydro modification of wood on mechanical performance of structures. It can be also highly useful to optimize woodworking machines by properly adjusting cutting power requirements.

A Critical Reanalysis of Uncontrollable Washboarding Phenomenon in Metal Band Sawing.

The article analyzes the cutting process of hard bars. Investigations conducted in industrial conditions demonstrated the presence of surface errors in the machined workpieces in the form of washboard patterns. The purpose of this study was to analyze the results of cutting on band sawing machines with different band saw blades. The cutting processes were conducted on three different horizontal band sawing machine types. Analyzed material was an alloy steel Ø40 mm rod with a hardened surface covered with a thin layer of chromium. The hardness of the outer layer was 547 HV with a core hardness of 180 HV. The surface topography measurements of the processed workpieces were carried out with the 3D Optical Profiler, which supplied information on the irregularities of the processed material texture. In each of the analyzed cases, a corrugated surface was obtained after sawing, which is the effect of the occurrence of the washboarding phenomenon, despite the fact that the teeth of each band saw had variable pitches. The washboarding phenomenon when cutting rods with hard surfaces is caused by the phenomenon of wave regeneration. Despite the use of variable pitch saw blades, the cutting process results in rippling of the sawn surface, which is caused by the high hardness of the outer layer of the workpiece, as well as by the type of tool with spring setting of teeth.

Prolidase activity disregulation in chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: One of the consequences of inflammatory diseases and neoplastic transformation is disregulation in metabolism of collagen and its interaction with cell surface integrin receptors. Although extracellular collagenases initiate the breakdown of tissue collagen the final step of collagen degradation is mediated by prolidase (E.C.3.4.13.9). We investigated whether prolidase activity may reflect disturbances of collagen metabolism in human pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. METHODOLOGY: Ten human samples of advanced chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer and ten samples of normal pancreas were compared in respect to prolidase activity and expression (western immunoblot), collagen content (hydroxyproline determination), collagenolytic activity (zymography) and beta 1 integrin subunit expression (western immunoblot). RESULTS: In pancreatitis tissue, an increase in collagen content, collagenolytic activity and beta 1 integrin expression were accompanied by significant decrease (about 2-fold) in prolidase activity and marked decrease in its expression, compared to normal pancreas. Pancreatic cancer tissue, compared to normal pancreas showed insignificant increase in collagen content, dramatic increase of collagenolytic activity and undetectable beta 1 integrin expression. These phenomena were accompanied by over 10-fold decrease in prolidase activity and marked decrease in prolidase expression. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that prolidase activity may reflect the extent of disturbances in tissue collagen metabolism during pancreatic diseases and the level of its activity may serve as a marker of chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer.

Serum and tissue level of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and IGF-I binding proteins as an index of pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer.

Previously we have found deregulation of collagen metabolism in human pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer tissues. Insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) is known to stimulate collagen biosynthesis through interaction with IGF-I receptor. IGF-I binding proteins (BPs) regulate the activity of IGF-I. We investigated whether serum and tissue IGF-I and IGF-BPs as well as tissue IGF-I receptor expression may reflect disturbances of collagen metabolism in patients with pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. In pancreatitis tissue, a significant increase in IGF-I and IGFBP-3 content was accompanied by a distinct increase in IGF-I receptor expression, compared to control pancreas tissue. In contrast, serum from patients with pancreatitis did not show significant increases in IGF-I and IGFBP-3 levels, however, significant increases in IGFBP-1 level (2.5 fold). Moreover, a distinct decrease in radioactive IGF-binding to the BPs, compared to control serum, was found. Pancreatic cancer tissue and serum of patients with pancreatic cancer showed significant increases in IGF-I, IGFBP-3 and IGFBP-1 content, accompanied by dramatic increases in IGF-I tissue receptor expression, compared to controls. In serum of patients with pancreatic cancer distinct increases in radioactive IGF-binding to 46 kDa BP, compared to control serum, were observed. The data suggest that disturbances in tissue collagen metabolism during pancreatic diseases may result from deregulation of IGF-I homeostasis and that elevated serum levels of IGF-I, IGFBP-3 and IGFBP-1 may serve as markers of pancreatic cancer.