The Influence of the Coating on the Saw Blade on the Energy Intensity of Cross-Cutting of Wood

Abstract

Cutting wood in the transverse direction is the most widespread in the logging process, and it is used in felling trees, shortening the length of trunks, and assortment production. In practice, it is particularly important that the entire wood processing process starts with the least energy-intensive process (i.e., the energy demand of the entire process). The aim of the study is to determine the effect of coatings on the energy demand of saw blades. The conditions of the experiment were taken from previous experiments. In the experiment, two types of saw blades of the same type, EN 41 9418 or 75 Cr1 (DIN 1.2003), were selected. Two types of saw blades (SB with SC (cemented carbide) slices and PK without SC (cemented carbide) slices) and two types of wood (beech and spruce) were used in the experiments. The saw blades were coated with three types of PVD coatings (physical method of layer deposition). The results show that the least energy-demanding saw blade is HSS_M (tool steel saw blade without SK blades with Maximizer coating) at a feed speed of 12 m·min−1 and a cutting speed of 60 ms−1, with a power of 1310.63 W. When sawing spruce wood, it was proven that the most energy-demanding saw blade is HSS_K_I at a feed rate of 12 m·min−1 and a cutting speed of 60 ms−1, with a power of 2113.56 W. The least energy-consuming saw blade is HSS_M at a feed rate of 12 m·min−1 and a cutting speed of 60 m·s−1, with a power of 1251.54 W. The results provide a comparison of the measured values of the performances of the cross-cutting wood process using a statistical program.