EVALUATION OF WOOD SURFACE ROUGHNESS OF EUCALYPT SPECIES SUBMITTED TO CUTTERHEAD ROTATION

Abstract

This work evaluated the quality of roughness surface of 18 years-old Eucalyptus grandis, E. dunnii and E. urophylla trees wood, to produce prepared 48 furniture. For the laboratory essays samples/species were prepared in the machining treatments in milling machine of vertical axis, in the up milling direction, in seven cut speeds (3 to 22 m.min-1). In the evaluation of the surface quality of the wood samples it was used the surface profiling instrument Taylor Hobson model Surtronic 3+, using the filter 2CR, with sampling length of 0,80 Ie or ln (mm) and cut-off of 0,80 λc (mm). The results indicated that the E. urophylla wood presented the best surface quality and with the smallest values of variation coefficient; the E. grandis wood showed intermediate values and E. dunnii wood presented the worst performance, as well as the largest value of variation coefficient. It was observed, also, that the treatment effect for the three eucalyptus wood species was related with the machining speed; better in the 3-4 m.min-1 and worse in the 22 m.min-1. The surface quality of the machined wood was related to its density, with the eucalyptus species of denser wood presenting the best quality of machined surface.