Predicting cutting power for band sawing process of pine and beech wood dried with the use of four different methods

Abstract

Wood drying is an important stage in the woodworking process. After drying, wood is subject to a re-sawing process, for which a high quality surface, low material loss, and high efficiency are often required. In this paper, forecasted values were presented of cutting power for the re-sawing process of pine and beech wood that were dried with four different methods. Forecasting of cutting power for an industrial band saw machine that works daily in a Polish sawmill was determined. Values of cutting power were forecasted for a full range of feed speeds of the analyzed band saw machine. The achieved results allowed the observation of noticeable changes in the forecasted cutting power for a given sawing process as a function of the wood drying method applied. Significant changes were observed for pine wood, especially between air-dried pine wood and wood dried with warm air-steam mixture, and between pine wood dried in a conventional kiln and with warm air-steam mixture.