Development of productive curing processes for the manufacturing of adhesively bonded milling tools

ABSTRACT

The use of adhesive bonding in the milling tool industry has been reported as advantageous, when compared with the industry’s standard, i.e. brazed joints. This work focuses on improving a previously developed jigless manufacturing process – i.e. induction pre-curing – used to produce woodworking tools. To reduce production times, two tactics were employed to accelerate the induction process. Different coil geometries, changing the magnetic field intensity, and a ferromagnetic filler, promoting internal heat generation. It was found that these methods do not improve the heating process in a significant way. Therefore, the standard alternative, i.e. full oven curing, was also tested. Using small-scale real joint specimens, the shear resistance of both curing procedures was compared. This revealed that oven curing provides two times more strength. As such, a new joint geometry was developed, to facilitate the process of oven curing full milling tools, now fabricated with fixing jigs. In conclusion, the induction heating process was deemed unfeasible, and, as such, oven curing became the recommended method. Several milling tool prototypes were manufactured and validated both in laboratory and real-world conditions, through costumer focused testing. These tests showed good tool performance and workpiece surface quality.

KEYWORDS:

• Adhesive curing
• Manufacturing productivity
• Milling tools

Acknowledgments

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The authors wish to acknowledge and thank the funding and support provided by FREZITE – Woodworking Tools SA, Trofa, Portugal.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).