Design of Automatic Cooling Power Hacksaw Machine for Multipurpose Applications

Abstract

This study involves a comparative analysis of a designed automatic cooling power hacksaw machine and manual cooling power hacksaw machine in a local sawmill where coolant is applied manually by the operator. The automatic cooling power hacksaw machine took an average time of 40 s to cut an average mass of 5.9 kg with average Specific Mechanical Energy (SME) of 29 kj/kg and average cutting speed of 270 rpm. However, the manual cooling hacksaw machine took an average time of 53 s to cut the same average mass of 5.9 kg with average SME of 42 kj/kg and average cutting speed of 269 rpm. The basic idea behind SME was to determine the energy going into the cutting operation process per unit mass of timber in form of work from the motor. From the above stated results, the automatic cooling hacksaw machine designed in this study took less time, less SME and slightly higher cutting speed to cut the same quantity of timber than the manual cooling hacksaw machine. Compared to the manual cooling power hacksaw, the automatic cooling power hacksaw machine is obviously more efficient in terms of time and energy savings.