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Novel orbital drilling and reaming tool for machining holes in carbon fiber–reinforced plastic (CFRP) composite laminates

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Abstract

Carbon fiber–reinforced plastics (CFRPs) have excellent mechanical and physical properties and are widely used to manufacture structural components and skins in aviation and aerospace. Industrial applications impose high requirements on the quality and efficiency of CFRP drilling. However, it is difficult to meet these requirements with conventional methods, such as drilling and orbital drilling. To improve hole processing quality, a novel cutting tool for orbital drilling was proposed in this research. Replacing the end mill in conventional orbital drilling (COD) with this novel cutting tool can enable an orbital drilling and reaming (ODR) machining process, which can suppress defects and reduce the thrust force when machining CFRP composite laminates. The thrust forces, tool wear, cutting temperatures, and hole quality in the ODR process presented in this paper were studied experimentally. The results indicated that machining with the novel ODR tool effectively reduced the thrust force and cutting temperature observed when machining with the general end mill. Moreover, the hole quality and tool life during ODR were exceedingly better than those during COD. The experimental results showed that processing with the novel tool has immense potential to replace existing processing methods for machining holes in CFRP composite laminates.

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Abbreviations

d (mm):

Diameter of the milling part

D (mm):

Diameter of the peripheral cutting edges

ap (mm):

Screw pitch of the helical path

e (mm):

Eccentricity of the helical path

R (mm):

Radius of the arc of the ODR tool

dap (mm):

Diameter of reaming part at a height of ap

h (mm):

Height of the reaming part

vfa (mm/rev):

Feed rate in the Z direction

vft (mm/rev):

Tangential feed rate

Sp1:

First marked point on the sidewall

Sp2:

Second marked point on the sidewall

Sp3:

Third marked point on the sidewall

Sp4:

Marked point of ambient temperature

Dt1 (°C):

Temperature rise between marked point Sp1 and the ambient temperature

Dt2 (°C):

Temperature rise between marked point Sp2 and the ambient temperature

Dt3 (°C):

Temperature rise between marked point Sp3 and the ambient temperature

F d :

Delamination factor

Dmax (mm):

Maximum diameter of the damaged zone

Dnom (mm):

Hole diameter

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China under Grant No. 2019YFB1704803.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechatronics Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 422, Harbin, 150001, People’s Republic of China

    Linghao Kong, Dong Gao, Yong Lu & Zhipeng Jiang

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  1. Linghao Kong
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  2. Dong Gao
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  3. Yong Lu
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Correspondence to Yong Lu.

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Kong, L., Gao, D., Lu, Y. et al. Novel orbital drilling and reaming tool for machining holes in carbon fiber–reinforced plastic (CFRP) composite laminates. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 110, 977–988 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-020-05928-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-020-05928-0

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