EFFECT OF CUTTING PROCESS PARAMETERS ON CHIP PRODUCTION IN THAI PALM FARM USING AN ORBITAL CUTTING BLADE MACHINE

Abstract

This article presents an effect of cutting process parameters on chip production. The study involves cutting blade shape, a number of blades used, and feed angel for cutting a palm leaf-branch by an orbital cutting blade in chipping machine. Experiments were separated into two parts. The first part was a study on producing of an orbital cutting blade with heat treatment process. The results showed that carbon steel cutting blade should not apply the tempering after the hardening because it affected to decrease hardness and wear resistance of cutting edge. The second set of experiments was on applying the blade in chipping machine to study on parameter settings. The results can be summarized as follows. The half V cutting blade showed the higher wear resistance and hardness than that of the double V cutting blade for hardness of 481 HV and weight loss of 6.24%. The half V cutting blade produced higher and larger amount of palm chopping scrap and could produce the scrap of 3878 g at the cutting speed of 1200 rpm. Increasing in number of blades relatively affected to increase cutting efficiency including the increase in scrap amount and the smaller of scrap size. Feed direction that inclined to the horizontal axis but not over 45° could decrease a friction force and cutting force between the cutting edge and palm surface and also assisted in easy feeding.