Characterization of band sawing based on cutting forces

Band sawing is one of the most efficient methods fo r which in general it is known that uneven tool wea r, chatter and cutting blade defects can affect cutting perfor mance significantly. A data acquisition system was arranged on an industrial band saw machine in order to characte ize the band sawing process based on measurements of forces. In this paper, the cutting force signals re analyzed in order to demonstrate important rel ations to workpiece and cutting blade properties. It is shown that cutting forces contain information about inho mogeneity of a cut workpiece. Signals of cutting forces also reveal important properties of blade geometry that is related to uneven blade wear. Discontinuities such as blade we lding are clearly evident in force signals and it i s shown that unevenness of blade backing geometry can cause a si gnificant variation in forces due to wedging betwee n the workpiece and a blade support. An original method f or blade shape extraction from force signals is pre ented in detail. Paper also reports on chatter phenomena obs erved at specific cutting conditions. Possible solu ti ns to the addressed problems and phenomena are discussed in t he conclusion.