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Christian Vollmers: Maximizing your saw performance

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Does the automatic panel saw still have a place in today’s woodworking shop? There is a perception that panel saws are only useful for high-volume production and that the better way to handle today’s just-in-time manufacturing is with a nesting router that handles one sheet at a time (see my article in the March/ April issue). However, even production shops with 30-40 boards per day can benefit from a panel saw. They provide quick cutting capacity, produce a crisp clean cut without pulling fibers out of the edge for application of even the thinnest edge tape and they have lower energy consumption and longer tool life.

When looking for a new panel saw the capacity of the machine is an important factor. The machine has to match to your current requirements and allow for future growth as well as manufacturing flexibility. In this article I want to guide you through the question of ‘what is the right size saw.’

It is a common belief that saws with a bigger cutting height always provide a higher cutting capacity. This is wrong. A bigger cutting height will increase the productivity only if you can cut books. Today’s trend to smaller batch sizes and just-in-time production has meant that most saws are cutting only one or two sheets high on average. In today’s production shops a big cutting height is only necessary when you have to cut boards or components that actually are 100 or 120 mm thick, like you would find in the plastics industry or in special applications.

The speed of a saw is another measure that is often used to gauge saw capacity. It refers to the maximum speed that the saw carriage can travel. Some saws show peak speeds above 200 m/min, but that doesn’t mean you can cut at that speed. Most common saw blades allow you to cut with a speed between 40-60 m/min and produce a clean cut. Only with special tooling is it possible to cut chip-free up to 150 m/min or more. Nevertheless, due to the acceleration and deceleration of the saw carriage maximum speeds will only be reached for very brief periods of time. Actual cutting speeds also depend on how many boards are cut at the same time. A single sheet can be cut faster than a book of four. The panel saw should identify the book height and adjust its cutting speed accordingly.


To demonstrate what capacity differences exist between seemingly equivalent saws, have a look at a typical cutting pattern that was pro- vided by a customer. The panel size is 2800 x 2070 mm and cutting speed 50 m/min.

The pattern was cut on one saw in 3 min. 34 sec, while a comparable saw only required 2 min. 48 sec. A substantial, 27 per cent capacity increase.

 

To answer the question what really determines the cutting capacity of a saw we have to analyze the process. There are many factors, each of which has an influence on the final outcome. In the graphic below we divided the cutting time for one complete pattern into five groupings:

As expected, the cutting cycle takes up the largest chunk of time and is mainly determined by the maximum cutting speed allowed for the material to be cut. What is unexpected are the large time segments devoted to the pressure beam movement, the positioning and the alignment cycles. For this chart we used a ‘smart pressure beam,’ which means the beam only lifts up 30 mm between cuts, instead of going all the way up every time. A regular pressure beam that moves all the way up and down for every cut extends the overall cutting time by 26 seconds or in other words, wastes 18 per cent of capacity.

Just as in the automobile industry, which established standards for fuel consumption, there is an accepted ’Triple Mix’ standard in the wood- working industry that allows you to accurately gauge cutting capacity based on many of these factors, not just cutting height and saw carriage speed. The ‘Triple Mix’ is based on three typical checkerboards, staggered and head-cut patterns. You have to also consider many optional features like Power Concept or Twin Pusher or X-Y Systems that influence the final throughput.

The only way to properly evaluate a panel saw is by actually running cutting patterns on the different saws you are considering and then compare their performance. If you would like to receive a copy of the ‘Triple Mix’ standard please email me at Christian.Vollmers@homag-canada.ca and I will send you a copy.

 

Christian Vollmers is the president of HOMAG Canada Inc. He can be reached at Christian.Vollmers@ homag-canada.ca or visit the website at www.homag-canada.ca

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