Grinding Characteristics of Carbon Fiber Epoxy Composite Hollow Shafts

Abstract

Since carbon fiber epoxy composite materials have excellent structural properties due to their high specific strength, high modulus, high damping and low thermal expansion, composite hollow shafts have been widely used for power transmission shafts for motor vehicles, spindles for machine tools, and rollers for thin film processing. However, the surfaces of molded composite shafts are not always satisfactory for precise mechanical elements, which often requires turning or grinding of surfaces. The machining characteristics of composite hollow shafts are different from those of conventional metal hollow shafts because composite hollow shafts have anisotropic inhomogeneous material characteristics. In this paper, the grinding characteristics of composite hollow flexible shafts were investigated experimentally and analytically with respect to stacking sequence and stiffness of carbon fiber epoxy hollow composite shafts.