An Investigation of Process Performance when Drilling Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) Composite under Dry, Cryogenic and MQL Environments

Abstract

Composites, especially Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composites, are widely used in today’s industrial world such as in aviation, defense, automotive industries. Although given the unique properties of the material, it is quite challenging to machine CFRP composites. Drilling, among other operations, is a critical process, that has a tendency to produce process-induced defects. In this paper, thrust force, torque, delamination, and diameter error of drilled holes were investigated in drilling of CFRP composites under dry, MQL and cryogenic conditions and the results were compared. Also, since machining parameters play an important role, a variable feed approach is adopted to investigate the effect of feed in drilling of CFRP composites.