FACILITIES AND SERVICES

The WMTRP  has the personnel and the facilities to offer various testing

 services and research for industry.

The type of tests include:

• tool material testing

• workpiece abrasiveness

• workpiece surface quality evaluation

• abrasive machining evaluation for various workpiece materials

• optimum tool configurations, feed and speeds determinations

A wide range of woodworking machine/tooling research activities are

supported by the Hodges Wood Products Laboratory.  This  20,000 square

foot facility houses over 60 woodworking machines valued at over one million

dollars. The tooling research related machinery in place in this laboratory

includes an high speed Weinig moulder, a Thermwood CNC turret router,

an Accurouter high speed / high power router, tennoners, panel saws, planers,

rip and cross cut saws, and associated tooling and maintenance/setup

equipment.  This equipment, along with the laboratory personnel, represents

a major existing resource for the WMTRP.  

Much of the program activity is taking place in the dedicated WMTRP laboratory.

This laboratory contains a machining area, analytical area, and offices.  It houses a

rotating disk wear tester, precision tool grinder, planer, spindle vibrational analysis

facility, and surface roughness measurement system, as well as the microscopy and

image analysis facilities. The spindle vibrational analysis facility includes numerous

high-speed spindles and controllers, mechanical shakers, balancing equipment, and

associated instrumentation.  In addition, a specially designed belt sanding machine,

instrumented with power and vibration sensors, was built for WMTRP abrasive

machining research.  The microscopy facility includes a video optical microscope 

capable of 500X magnification.  The images can be stored in digital format in the

 microscope or downloaded to the computer for analysis.