A large office furniture manufacturer has now implemented Leitz EdgeExpert (high-shear) pre-mill tools on all edgebanders. “We decided to convert all machines to Leitz WhisperCut EdgeExpert tools, based on the exceptional performance and extremely quick recovery of the purchase price.”

A large RTA furniture manufacturer is using high-shear tooling to reduce chipboard core plucking and ensure optimal panel edgeband quality.  “Ensuring proper edgebanding adhesion and perfectly sealed edges is critical to achieving our quality control specifications.”

 

 

Factors To Consider: Engineered composite wood panels with decorative surface laminates provide manufacturers with innovative and economical alternatives to solid wood. An ever-evolving list of laminate options, from paper to metal, soft to hard, smooth to textured, allow designers unlimited artistic freedom.  However, the combination of low-cost core material (particleboard) with a broad range of surface laminates can pose significant challenges in the fabrication process. 

 

Start Here: Manufacturers are now making tremendous advances in quality and productivity with high-shear cutting tools.  High-shear cutting tips, with over 30 degrees of shear, effectively convert the cutting process from a “chiseling” action to slicing and shearing.

 

Where Problems Originate: Seeking lower cost raw materials, manufacturers are often forced to use poor-quality particleboard. Manufacturing processes for lower-cost panel material generally means diminished quality control.  As a result, the scrap wood shaving and chips used to make particleboard are inadvertently combined with rock, minerals and metal during the extrusion process. Combining the poor quality of wood chips with newer, environmentally-friendly binders results in board with a very loose center core.  Applying delicate, wear-resistant surface laminates to this poor quality substrate can result in serious processing problems and costly scrap loss.

 

Initial Adjustments: High-shear tools easily slice through surface laminates and particleboard, yielding exceptional edge quality and far fewer voids due to plucked chips. Exceptional cut quality, without voids, results in perfectly sealed banded edges without telegraphed defects. The dramatic reduction in cutting pressure provides optimal cut quality in soft and hard materials alike. Another noteworthy benefit to high-shear tooling is exponentially longer service life.  The greatly reduced cutting pressure causes far less tool wear and damage, resulting in extended performance times exceeding 25x that of tools with shear of less than 30 degrees.

 

Tooling Improvements:  Innovative tooling solutions utilize high shear angles to greatly reduce cutting pressures, improving quality and tool life.  Extreme pressure is responsible for many machining defects. The key is to apply just the right amount of shear in the design of the tool to solve cutting issues.  Too much shear can also be problematic. Tools with extreme shear, in excess of 55 degrees, begin to create too much compression force which again increases cutting pressure and related defects - plucking, chipping, grain tearing, etc.  Extreme-shear tools are also significantly more expensive to manufacture and service, because they require significantly more polycrystalline diamond coating (PCD) to cover the required cut width.

 

 

 

Leitz innovative WhisperCut EdgeExpert pre-mill cutters feature removable high-shear tips, which can be replaced in the field. The proprietary PCD-tipped carbide knives are precisely seated and secured for exacting performance. The knife pockets and knives are laser etched to ensure correct knife placement.  Tool performance is equal or superior to that of tipped PCD tools, but with far lower operating costs due to inserts that are re-sharpenable up to 10 times. The ability to replace knives, eliminates the need to replace cutterheads or hold multiple redundant cutters in inventory. Additionally, the closed design of aluminum tool body is lighter and quieter, reducing machine wear and manufacturing noise.

 

 

The Leitz WhisperCut tools, with their lower mass, are able to jump into and out of panels more softly, lessening transition damage. The tool gullets, which are designed around Leitz Dust Flow Control (DFC) principles, prevent tip damage by directing chips and dust away from the tool and into the extraction tube. WhisperCut tooling can also be equipped with Leitz data chips, for use in Industry 4.0 / Smart Manufacturing environments.

 

Leitz WhisperCut high-shear edgebander tools have lightweight aluminum bodies which reduces spindle stress and vibration.

 

Diamaster EdgeExpert router bits offer outstanding cut quality at maximum feed rates in their three-wing version. Users will achieve a perfect edge finish on difficult-to-machine materials like thin papers, foils, high-gloss coatings or veneers. Moreover the finish of even difficult-to-machine core materials will be smooth and free of plucking and voids in the edge surface.  

EdgeExpert routers are the perfect solution for laser edgebanding technology where zero joints are required. especially when mated with Leitz ThermoGrip precision CNC chuck technology.  ThermoGrip chucks provide the most rigid link between the machine spindle and cutting tool; the combination of perfect tool concentricity and light cutting pressure have allowed Diamaster EdgeExpert routers to achieve as much as 60X the life of identical PCD routers with standard shear.  

Diamaster EdgeExpert routers are also available in combined RH/LH rotation, providing optimal cut quality without tool changes.

Leitz EdgeExpert design principles can be applied to straight and profiled tools, and are beneficial in all engineered and solid wood applications. For example, EdgeExpert milling tools, combined with hydro format spindles (HF30), offer the best solution for long life, highest quality edges in high gloss and difficult-to-machine-surfaces. Learn more at Leitz Tooling