Panel Edge Recess Milling for Stress Reduction
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The production of panels with tongue and groove profiles faces challenges in reducing material stresses during machining, leading to potential damage such as cracks and premature wear due to peak loads during the milling of edges, especially when forming thin-walled profile elements.
Innovation Solution
The method involves milling a recess on the edge of the panel before profiling, which reduces the contact surface for the milling tool and allows for the use of simpler tools that apply forces parallel to the panel plane, minimizing stress and damage by creating an entry area for the milling tool where higher forces can be absorbed without issue.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the panel is guided past milling devices to mill out groove and tongue profiles on the edges, then the panels can be assembled into flat coverings with locked or snapped connections, but peak loads occur during machining that lead to stresses and potential damage to the panel
Solution Approach 1:
The method mills out recesses at the outer edges of the panel before profiling the groove and tongue profiles. This preliminary action creates entry areas that reduce subsequent machining stresses by allowing the milling tools to engage the material more gradually, preventing peak loads that could damage thin-walled profile elements
Solution Approach 2:
The edge profiling process is divided into multiple stages: first milling recesses at the outer edges, then milling the groove and tongue profiles in subsequent operations. This segmentation of the machining process distributes the cutting loads over time and reduces peak stresses on the panel material
2Productivity
If feed speeds are increased to 250 to 350 m/min to achieve higher throughputs, then productivity improves, but the peak loads during machining increase and lead to stresses that can damage the panel
Solution Approach 1:
By pre-milling recesses at high feed speeds before the final profiling operations, the method enables high productivity in the preparatory stage while the subsequent profiling operations experience reduced peak loads due to the material already being partially removed in the recess areas
3Shape
If thin-walled profile elements such as the protruding lower lip of a groove profile are formed, then the panel achieves the desired tongue and groove connection geometry, but the loads increase disproportionately with decreasing panel thickness leading to excessive stresses
Solution Approach 1:
The method mills out recesses at the outer edges before forming the thin-walled profile elements. This preliminary material removal reduces the subsequent machining loads on thin-walled elements like the lower lip of groove profiles, preventing excessive stresses that would occur if these delicate features were milled directly without prior recess preparation
Solution Approach 2:
The recesses are specifically positioned at the outer edges where the milling tools first engage the material. This local modification of the panel geometry at critical entry points reduces stresses locally where they are most likely to occur during subsequent profiling of thin-walled elements
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~3
Figure 4
AI summary
The invention relates to a method for manufacturing a panel (1) for floor, wall, and/or ceiling coverings, in which a groove profile (3) or tongue profile (4) is milled out at at least four outer edges of the panel (1). To produce a panel with a thin-walled profile element that is less prone to warping at its corners and has a longer service life, a method of the aforementioned type has been proposed, in which, prior to milling out the profile at one outer edge, a recess is milled out of the panel (1) adjacent to at least one edge of that outer edge, and in which the recess is milled out with a contour that extends at least partially further into the panel (1) than the contour of the profile of that outer edge.