Cutting forces and surface roughness in radiata pine routing and its relationship with acoustic emission

Chile produces more than 400 secondary products of radiata pine that are exported almost entirely. These exports have been increasing continuously and significantly in the last years, pointing at the potential of this species producing secondary products. Nevertheless, very few studies have been realized in secondary processes in order to determine appropriate relationships between cutting energy and surface roughness. The purpose of this study was to investigate for determined cutting conditions (peripheral cut 90-0) in radiata pine, the relationships between cutting forces, acoustic emission and surface quality. The experimental results shows that the acoustic emission signals are well correlated with the change of the cutting conditions and with the surface roughness, with increased roughness and acoustic emission signals with higher chip thickness. As regards to the cutting forces, the results are more accurate than acoustic emission, especially in the low levels of chip thickness. Both measurements show interesting relationships among each other that permits to conclude that more intense research on this topic is necessary linking the cuttings forces with measurement of acoustic emission.