The Effect of Selected Technical, Technological, and Material Factors on the Size of Juvenile Poplar Wood Chips Generated during Face Milling

The effects of technical, technological, and material factors affecting the size of juvenile poplar wood chips were evaluated. Each analysis was performed on two species of poplar, namely natural poplar Populus tremula L. and plantation poplar clones Populus euramericana Serotina, and on juvenile and mature wood within each poplar species. A cutter with angular geometry was selected for the face milling:  = 55° (angle of cutting wedge),  = 15° (rake angle). The cutting conditions were a feed rate of vf = 2.5 and 15 m·min-1, cutting speed of vc = 30 m·s-1, 45 m·s-1, and 60 m·s-1, and the depth of cut ap = 1 mm. An image analysis of the size of the largest and smallest fraction was performed. Most of the chips generated during the face milling of poplar wood were classified as flat grain wood. A small percentage of the generated chips could be included in the group of rod-shaped fibrous bulk particles with a considerable extension in one direction (smaller fractions generated at a feed rate of 2.5 m·min-1, and at the finest fractions- dust generated in all of the combinations of technical and technological parameters).