Drilling of composite laminates

• Main Author: Wong, Linus Lizhi
• Other Authors: Sathyan Subbiah
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/60215
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Composite materials are increasingly being used in many engineering industries due to their high specific strength, modulus and toughness. Fiber reinforced polymer composites can be made to meet the various demands of weight, stiffness and strength through proper laminate ply design. The strength and flexibility can be altered by changing the matrix, fiber type or fiber orientation. Due to limited manufacturability of composite structures, assembly by mechanical fasteners or through adhesive bonded joining is common. Drilling of such composite material is needed for mechanical joining and it is a complicated machining process. Delamination and fiber pull out are among the most serious concerns during drilling of fiber-reinforced composite material due to the need for structural joining. As such, several drilling operating factors such as speed, feed rate etc must be taken into consideration when drilling the composite material. This report investigates the general behaviour on how glass fiber reinforced polymer composite (GFRP) respond to certain drilling process parameters. Two type of drill bits (router and reamer), two different spindle speed and two feed rates were of drilling experiment were considered on two different fiber orientation (unidirectional and bidirectional cross ply) specimen. This is a continuation of previous report done by previous student, Low [1]. In addition to the thrust force, torque will also be measured and analysed. Specimen samples will also be thicker than the previous experiment to allow more data acquisition.