Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composite drilling via aluminum chromium nitride-coated tools: Hole quality and tool wear assessment

Abstract

Drilling into carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites presents a stiff challenge in terms of ensuring hole quality aspects such as delamination, roughness, roundness, etc. while maintaining an adequate tool life. The hardened carbon fibers in laid up form generally give rise to chips in powdered form that contribute significantly to tool wear problem. To overcome the aforementioned issues, the use of high performance tools has been reported. This paper reports on the usage of yet another novel high performing but much economical aluminum chromium nitride-coated tools that are typically employed for metallic parts. The effect of aluminum chromium nitride tools at three spindle speeds with constant feed rate was evaluated on hole quality, tool wear, and chip formation pattern of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composite plates. The results were compared with the performance of conventional high speed steel tools taken as baseline. It was found that the coated tools help significantly improve hole quality and provide appreciable tool life at specific machining parameters.

Recent advances in drilling of carbon fiber–reinforced polymers for aerospace applications: a review

“…FRPs includes carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP), glass fiber reinforced polymers (GFRP) and aramid fibers [5]. CFRP is primarily choice used in high technology applications.…”

“…The combination of high hardness and toughness makes the carbide tools suitable for FRPs' machining[32]. Many researchers including Harris et al[5], Wang…”

Thermal characteristics of unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced polymer laminates during orthogonal cutting

“…4 CFRP components are often manufactured to be the final shape, but postmachining operations, such as drilling and milling are always required to meet the geometric dimension, shape accuracy, and surface quality for final assembly. 5,6…”

“…4 CFRP components are often manufactured to be the final shape, but postmachining operations, such as drilling and milling are always required to meet the geometric dimension, shape accuracy, and surface quality for final assembly. 5,6 The characteristics of anisotropy and heterogeneity of CFRP are always manifested by significant directionality during machining process. 7 Material removal mechanism differs completely at different fiber orientation angle conditions during the cutting process.…”

Assessment of Cutting Performance of Cemented Tungsten Carbide Drills in Drilling Multidirectional T700 CFRP Plate

“…Four points were taken along the hole inner wall 0.5 mm below the entrance surface of the CFRP plate and the results were recorded and comparison was done after the computation of hole diameter error, Eh (%). The Eh (%) is defined and computed by using Equation (2), as described in the literature [34,49].…”