The effect of rotation speed on the power consumption and cutting accuracy of guided circular saw: Experimental measurement and analysis of saw critical and flutter speeds

This paper investigates the effect of rotation speed and vibration response of a circular saw on the sawing process of Douglas-fir wood. An idling test was conducted on a guided circular saw to determine its stable operation speeds and vibration behavior. Short-time Fourier transform analysis was performed on saw idling test data, and variation of excited frequencies of the blade as a function of rotation speed was obtained. The saw blade critical speeds and the rotation speeds that correspond to saw flutter instability were identified. Then experimental cutting tests were conducted at different cutting conditions and the effect of rotation speed and saw vibration response on cutting power consumption and sawing accuracy was investigated. The results showed that conducting a saw idling test and vibration response analysis can identify the saw critical and flutter speeds, which is essential for identifying the optimum rotation speed of circular saw. There was a significant increase in power consumption when cutting at super-critical and super-flutter speed. The effect of rotation speed on sawing accuracy is complex and nonlinear. This effect interacts with feed speed, which makes it difficult to generalize sawing accuracy versus rotation speed in the circular sawing process.