Suitability Study of Optical Coordinate Measuring Machine for Quality Assessment and Wear Phenomena Identification of Blade Edge and Surface of Planer Technical Knives.

This article discusses a comparative analysis of the wear and quality of planer knife blades used in wood planers. The novelty in this work is the use of a simple coordinate measuring machine with a vision system to assess the wear of the cutting edges of planer knives. The primary objective of the research described in this paper was to verify whether the wear of the cutting edge of planer knives can be measured quickly and accurately using an optical coordinate measuring machine with a vision system. To date, contact profilometry methods have been used for this purpose, which require a specialist apparatus and qualified measuring equipment operators and are expensive and time-consuming. The research presented in this work was conducted on twelve planer knives. The condition and wear of the working surfaces of the tested knives were assessed using an optical digital microscope. The wear of the cutting edge of the knives was measured using two methods: the contact profilometry method and an optical coordinate measuring machine equipped with a vision system. The edge profiles and their parameters obtained by the optical method were compared to the results of measurements with a stylus profilometer. Based on the research and analyses conducted, it was found that the optical method used in this research significantly shortens the time of measuring the wear of the cutting edges of planer knives. In addition, this method has a wider measurement range, and the obtained measurement results are characterized by lower measurement uncertainty.