Assessment of Hole Quality When Drilling Particleboard Made of Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (OPEFB)

Assembling particleboard made of palm oil empty fruit bunches requires good quality holes so that the assembled product can meet quality requirements. Machinability is critical in producing high-quality holes, especially for manufacturing products from particleboard. It is owing to low level of density and structural strength of particleboards. Accordingly, the machinability of the particleboards in terms of hole quality is a primary concern in this study. The hole quality was assessed in terms of the diameter deviations, the hole’s perpendicularity and the surface roughness. The results showed that the response deviations were relatively large for all observation aspects. In addition, the variations in cutting conditions and the appropriate selection of the tool geometry failed to render their defined effects on the hole quality. In other words, the effect of cutting conditions and tool geometry on the hole quality is difficult to define accurately.