Wear of tungsten carbide tipped circular saws in cutting particleboard: Effect of carbide grain size on wear characteristics

Summary In order to study the wear of tungsten carbide tipped circular saws, three kinds of carbide tips (fine, medium and coarse grained ones) were employed, when sawing particleboards. The saw with coarse grained carbide tips showed the longest working life, while the fine-grained carbide tipped saw retained its usefulness for only a short period of sawing. In an experiment using a saw with all three kinds of carbide tips, it was also confirmed that the fine grained tips wore most and the coarse least. From the observations of the worn tips, it was found that the wear boundary on the clearance face was quite distinct for these tips, although for the fine grained one it was remarkably indented. There were many striations on the wear surface of the fine grained tip, but they scarcely appeared on those of the other two tips. The wear mechanism and the wearing process of the carbide tips are discussed.This paper was presented at the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Japan Wood Research Society at Tokyo, April, 1972The authors wish to express their appreciation to Dr. T. Kawakita, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd., for supplying the carbide tips and to Mr. M. Hiraiwa, Nittokukan Saw Mfg. Co., Ltd., for manufacturing the saws. They are also greatly indebted to Dr. H. Saiki, Wood Structure Laboratory, Kyoto University, for taking scanning electron micrographs and for his valuable advice. This investigation was supported in part by Grants in Aid for Scientific Research in 1972 and 1973 from the Ministry of Education, Japan