Estimation and Analysis of Sanding Length in Brush Sanding Specially Shaped Wood Products

Abstract Sanding is an important process in furniture production. Components with unconventional shapes are usually sanded by hand rather than by machine because heavy sanding makes machine sanding more difficult. However, manual sanding is inefficient and costly. Thus, a machine capable of sanding unconventionally shaped surfaces is needed. In this study, we defined the cumulative sanding length L of a brush sander and built a numerical simulation model of L to analyze the problem of heavy sanding during surface brush sanding of specially shaped wood products. Based on our analysis of the motion and sanding process of a sander roller, we propose that the sanding strip should be bent when sanding flat surfaces and straight when sanding bulging surfaces. We also analyzed the effects of specific sanding parameters and the causes of heavy sanding. This research shows the following results: L increases with increasing theoretical contact length, the radius and rotational speed of the sander roller are proportional to L, feed rate is inversely proportional to L, and the L of a bulging point is 7.5 times greater than that of a flat surface. This difference is the main cause of heavy sanding, which is, in turn, mainly caused by different sanding strip patterns used when various parts of the component are sanded. This study provides a theoretical basis for using surface brush sanding for specially shaped wood products.