Wear Resistance Improvement of Delimbing Knives of Multifunctional Logging Machines

Delimbing of harvested wood is the first step towards obtaining finished products, where it is necessary to strain after achievement of maximum efficiency in the use of raw materials and quality improvement of the obtained assortment. Herewith, high-quality cleaning and minimization of damage of tree trunks is associated to a great extent with reliable operation of the delimbing and pull-through devices of logging machines that carry out both removal of branches and technological movement of wood. An intensive blunting of delimbing knives occurs in operation of the delimbing and pull-through device. As a result, the forces spent on delimbing increase and the process of stable cutting is disrupted. Partial cutting, and with an increase in pressure on the knives their cutting into a trunk and breaking out of limb occur, which reduce the quality of the harvested wood and lead to further intensification of wearing out of the cutting devices. The wearing out of knives is due to the action of a complex set of mechanical, chemical, temperature and other factors that accompany the technological process. This leads to a change in the dimensions of knife cutting edges. In order to improve the quality of delimbing and at that reduce the energy consumption, it is necessary to assess the influence of geometric and physico-chemical parameters of the cutting knives on their wear resistance, which will allow to theoretically justify the rational geometry of the cutting wedge and requirements for the physico-chemical characteristics of the recommended materials. The force interaction analysis of the cutting wedge with the cut limb has shown that, already at the beginning of the contact, the cutting blade is acted by the shock bending load, which, when peak values are reached, often leads to wearing out by chipping of sufficiently large microvolumes of the cutting edge. In this case, the wearing out of delimbing knives occurs mainly due to thedevelopment of microcracks, which are formed as a result of anti-plane deformation when applying stresses, and depends on the parameters of brittle crushing of materials. Moreover, the wearing out becomes more intense with contact with contaminated and wet, and in winter period frozen wood, which leads to intensification of corrosion and mechanical processes in the marginal areas of knife blades. The solution of the problem of increasing the wear resistance of delimbing knives can be provided by optimization of dimensions of knife wedge and formation of favorable physical and mechanical characteristics in the surface layer that minimize the wear intensity. The favorable dimensions of knife wedge were experimentally determined for this purpose. Complex alloyed chromium-nickel steel and rational modes of its heat treatment are proposed for the manufacture of delimbing knifes. Electrodeposition hardening is recommended as the surface treatment, which allows to optimize the surface roughness and form a favorable compressive stress in the marginal areas, thus providing high wear resistance of delimbing knives.For citation: Pilyushina G.A., Pamfilov E.A., Sheveleva E.V. Wear Resistance Improvement of Delimbing Knives of Multifunctional Logging Machines. Lesnoy Zhurnal [Russian Forestry Journal], 2019, no. 6, pp. 174–184. DOI: 10.17238/issn0536-1036.2019.6.174