WEAR CHARACTERISTICS OF WOOD CUTTING TOOLS CAUSED BY EXTRACTIVE AND ABRASIVE MATERIALS IN SOME TROPICAL WOODS

Tropical woods and wood-based materials are processed in large and increasing quantities in many countries for building constructions and decorative purposes. In the secondary wood manufacturing industry, where wood and wood-based materials are machined extensively, tool wear becomes an important economic parameter. Therefore, investigating the machining characteristics of the wood and wood-based materials will lead to making better choices of cutting tool materials used to cut them. For many wood cutting processes, the interest in high speed tool steels and tungsten carbides remains very important because of their good tool edge accuracy and easy grinding. This paper presents the wear characteristics of SKH51 high speed steel and K10 tungsten carbide caused by extractive and abrasive materials present in Indonesian tropical timbers of mersawa, oil palm, white meranti, damar laut and ulin. Experimental results showed that extractive and silica contained in the woods affected wearing of both cutting tools. Mersawa contained an extractive that was the most corrosive to the cutting tools. Mersawa and oil palm, which are also high in silica content, caused severe damages to the cutting edge of the SKH51 high speed steel. However, K10 tungsten carbide tool retained high wear resistance in cutting the tested woods.