Abstract
This paper presents a study of hole quality and energy consumption in the process of drilling a thermoplastic polymeric material, polyether-ether-ketone, reinforced with 30% glass fibers (PEEK-GF30). PEEK-GF30’s capacity to be machined has focused on turning operations. Studies of drilling involving thermoplastic polymeric materials have considered materials with other types of matrices, or reinforcement. In this study, quantities such as maximum and mean surface roughness, delamination, maximum thrust force, maximum momentum, and energy required during the process were determined for three types of drill bits, and the most influential factors for each variable were identified using an ANOVA multifactor analysis. The highest quality and lowest energy consumption were achieved for a drill bit rotation speed of 7000 rpm and a feed rate of 400 mm/min with a tungsten carbide (WC) drill bit coated with titanium aluminum nitride (TiAlN). Although a WC drill bit with a diamond point reduces delamination, the roughness increases, thus, the choice of the drill bit type depends on the roughness allowed. A WC drill bit coated with TiAlN produces a good surface finish that can eliminate subsequent operations and requires less energy; thus, this type of drill bit is the most attractive of the types evaluated.
Highlights
Polymeric materials that have organic matrices reinforced with glass fibers are increasingly being used in industry because of their mechanical characteristics
This paper presents an analysis of the quality of drilled holes in PEEK-GF30 and the energy required to produce them using several types of drill bits
The experiments were performed three times for each drill bit type and cutting condition to guarantee the precision of the measurements
Summary
Polymeric materials that have organic matrices reinforced with glass fibers are increasingly being used in industry because of their mechanical characteristics. The addition of glass fibers to the polymers results in materials with improved mechanical and thermal properties, allowing a wider range of applications. Among these types of materials, polyether-ether-ketone, reinforced with. Studies of drilling involving thermoplastic polymeric materials have considered materials with other types of matrices, such as polyester [6,7,8] and epoxy [9,10,11], or materials with other types of reinforcement, such as carbon fibers [12,13] These studies and the literature reviews related to drilling polymeric composite materials [14,15,16,17] have shown that damage in the form of delamination must be minimized. A bit that improves the hole quality is desirable as holes of high quality will not require subsequent finishing operations in high-performance applications
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