POSSIBILITIES OF IMPLEMENTATION OF INFRARED THERMOGRAPHY IN THE RESEARCH OF MECHANICAL WOOD PROCESSING

In order to increase the quality of wood products and achieve competitiveness in the market, it is necessary to monitor the quality of mechanical wood processing. Among other factors, the quality of wood processing is also affected by the temperature developed during cutting wood, because the increase of temperature may cause tool instability, increase of friction between the tool and workpiece, low quality and even burning of wood surface. An additional risk of the temperature increase on the cutting place is the heating of the separated wood particles. Namely, wood particles are transported by air flow to the place of storage and they are a possible fire or explosion hazard in the system of transport and storage (Blijderveen, 2010). Infrared thermography is the method mostly applied in the area of technical science, especially in the field of civil engineering and mechanical engineering. The application of infrared thermography is rare in the research of wood technology. The application of infrared thermography could improve the research of factors influencing the increase of temperature on the cutting place and tool heating. According to the results of experimental measurements carried out in sawing of beech-wood at the feed speed of 2 m/min, the maximum temperature of the machined surface in a short interval (27 seconds) was 120 degrees C, and the maximum temperatures of the separated particles were about 60 degrees C. After defining the necessary constants for the implementation of measurement, infrared theiinography can be used as a very useful method for monitoring the process of mechanical wood processing.