Making grooves on panels is essential for fixing back panels within cabinets and wardrobes. These grooves require to be produced with chip-free edges on laminated panels.

To do this operation, TCT brazed straight-edge router bits are used traditionally on classic machinery. To get more life on abrasive materials solid carbide grooving router bits are recommended. Along with a clean tear-free edge, these router bits work with increased stability and reduced vibrations even at increased cutting depths.

With increase in demand for furniture for both office and domestic use, the production has to be increased to meet the requirements at the shortest possible time. This encourages the producers to invest in tooling which can run at higher feed rates.

Tools such as solid carbide spiral routers, which come with single, double or triple flutes, provide benefits such as:

•        One-piece design allows for a high-precision concentric and axial run-out

•        They can be used for higher feed speeds up to 20 metres per minute

•        Gives clean cuts on edge surface during sizing and grooving

•        Longer life than other solid carbide tools because of surface coating.

Coating also improves the hardness and thermal resistance of the tool, thereby making it usable for a longer period of time without resin getting deposited onto the tool body.

The stability of these tools during machining high-density and abrasive materials makes it suitable for working even on difficult to machine materials such as transformer insulation boards, compact laminates, G-FRP and fibre cement boards.

To increase productivity, it is sometimes required to complete a set of operations in a single pass. Instead of solid carbide tooling, one can use poly-crystalline, diamond-tipped, straight-edge or spiral router bits. The benefits are:

•        Clean cuts which can be painted upon

•        Spiral bits come with staggered tip arrangement in up-shear and down-shear design

•        This gives tear-free edges on both sides of the material

•        Positive shear angle helps in efficient dust extraction.

The life of these tools increases manifold due to poly-crystalline diamond cutting material. High feed rates of up to 30 metres per minute are possible due to precision concentricity and axial run out.

Together these router bits can be used on a wide variety of material such as solid wood, pre-laminated particle boards and fibre materials (MDF, HDF, etc.), uncoated, plastic-coated, veneered plywood, plastics, solid surface material (Corian, Varicor, etc.) and decorative laminates.

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