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Machinability of wood fiber/polyethylene composite during orthogonal cutting

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Abstract

Wood fiber/polyethylene composite (WFPEC) is composed of a natural wood fiber and a recyclable polyethylene plastic, which is normally used as an environmental protection composite material. However, better knowledge of chip formation and surface damage mechanism of WFPEC is essential to improve its machinability for extending exterior and interior applications. In this article, machinability of WFPEC was investigated by analyzing the disparity between cutting efficiency and surface quality through a group of orthogonal cutting experiments with change of cutting depth. The chip formation process was recorded by a high-speed camera system with 5000 frames per second. Surface topography was observed by a scanning electron microscope. The results showed that the chip morphology changed from continuous cutting governed by a continuous shearing process under the shallow cutting depth, to a discontinuous cutting governed by plastic fracture under the deep cutting depth ahead of the tool tip. Flattened matrix was the main form of surface topography caused by shallow cutting depth, while matrix-fiber tearing was caused by deep cutting depth. Pullout/fracture and debonding of fibers were related to the fiber orientation angle and the diameter of fiber bundles, but not to the cutting depth. Taken together, the toughness of the workpiece material in the cutting region decreased with the increase in cutting depth. To avoid matrix-fiber tearing, shallow cutting depth should be used during finishing to maintain surface quality. In contrast, pre-cutting can be performed with a deep cutting depth in order to improve the cutting efficiency.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the support from the National Science Foundation of China (31971594), Leitz Tooling System Co., Ltd., for supplying the samples of PCD tools, and Guofeng Wood Plastic Composite Co., Ltd., for supplying the samples of wood fiber/polyethylene composite.

Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31971594).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, No. 159 Longpan Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

    Xiaolei Guo & Jinxin Wang

  2. Division of Wood Science and Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, Skellefteå, Sweden

    Dietrich Buck

  3. College of Furnishings and Industrial Design, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China

    Zhaolong Zhu

  4. College of Forest and Garden, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, China

    Yong Guo

Authors
  1. Xiaolei Guo
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  2. Jinxin Wang
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  3. Dietrich Buck
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  4. Zhaolong Zhu
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  5. Yong Guo
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Contributions

Xiaolei Guo contributed to project administration, experimental design, analysis and discussion of the data, and writing the paper. Jinxin Wang was involved in laboratory experiments, data collection, analysis and discussion of the data, and editing the paper. Dietrich Buck contributed to laboratory experiments, data collection, and review of the paper. Zhaolong Zhu was involved in laboratory experiments, data collection, and supervision of the work. Yong Guo contributed to experimental design, laboratory experiments, and supervision of the work.

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Correspondence to Xiaolei Guo.

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The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on request.

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Guo, X., Wang, J., Buck, D. et al. Machinability of wood fiber/polyethylene composite during orthogonal cutting. Wood Sci Technol 55, 521–534 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00226-020-01256-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00226-020-01256-4

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