Effect of drilling parameters and tool geometry on drilling performance in drilling carbon fiber–reinforced plastic/titanium alloy stacks

Abstract

An experimental study on drilling of carbon fiber–reinforced plastic/titanium alloy was conducted using three kinds of drills to investigate the cutting process. This research was mainly focused on the drilling forces, drilling temperatures, chips, and delamination area with respect to the cutting parameters and tool geometries. One type of tungsten carbide twist drill and two types of chemical vapor deposition diamond-coated drills which were multi-facet drill and brad spur drill, respectively, were used in this research. The influence of drilling parameters and tool geometries was analyzed and the conclusions were drawn that the proper selection of drilling parameters and drill geometries could lead to better hole quality. Experimental results indicated that the drilling forces and hole quality have a strong connection with feed rate while the impact of cutting speed is small. Research results also showed that the use of multi-facet drill could reduce the delamination greatly and thus produced a better surface integrity. Besides, drilling temperature and titanium alloy chips were studied in this research.