Towards high cutting speed in wood milling

High cutting speed machining processes have been used for about 10 years for metals. This technology presents many advantages related to output and surface quality. For timber machining, commonly used velocities are already high. However, literature about cutting velocity function during a machining process is rare. Nevertheless, some published results have shown the effect of speed on chip formation. In order to perform experiments at high cutting speeds, we used a prototype model of a CN routing machine, which allowed us to conduct machining from 3m s(-1) to 62 m s(-1). Surface analysis was carried out by an optical roughness measurement device. The wood species studied is beech. Tests have been performed with constant chip thickness value.