An Attempt to Analyze the Influence of Properties of Five African Wood Species on Cemented Carbide Tool Wearing

The dulling of cemented carbide cutting tools after milling five African wood species was studied. The wood specimens investigated varied in high temperature corrosivity (HTC), hard mineral contamination (HMC), and density (D). Attempts to replace the combustion method of evaluating the content of natural HMC in wood with spectral mass analysis methods, such as energy dissipative spectrum (EDAX) or atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), failed. Experiments showed that scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis of the ash yielded information on the size and shape of small-dimension, natural HMC particles present in the wood specimens. Employing theoretical multi-variable simulation, the combined effects of the HTC, the HMC, and the D on the cemented carbide tool wear was modeled and appeared to be a good explanation of the results observed.