Evaluation of delamination in drilling medium density fibreboard

Drilling is a frequently practised machining process in furniture manufacture owing to the need for component assembly. The drilling of medium density fibreboard (MDF) is significantly affected by the delamination tendency of these materials under the action of cutting parameters. The aim of this article is to study the cutting parameters (cutting speed and feed rate) on delamination in MDF drilling. A plan of experiments was performed drilling with cutting parameters prefixed in two MDF panels. The objective was to establish the correlation between cutting velocity and feed rate with the delamination around the MDF blind hole. The delamination factor decreases with the increase of cutting velocity and increases with the feed rate for both materials. The drill tests showed the important role of the cutting speed on the evolution of the delamination factor as a function of the material removal rate (MRR). The advantage of using a high cutting speed in drilling these materials is clear.