Measurement of delamination and tool wear with sensors in end-milling using solid and carbide-tipped K10 end mills

Abstract

An investigation on the machinability of glass-fibre reinforced plastic (GFRP) fabricated using hand moulding was conducted on a vertical-milling centre (VMC) with solid K10 carbide and carbide-tipped K10 end mills having four flutes. This revealed that the machinability of GFRP depends on tool wear and delamination. Sensor-fusion techniques were used to measure tool wear and delamination and the tests were conducted utilising a Taguchi L8 orthogonal array that included the data from the sensors' output. These tests illustrated the suitability of the sensor technique for online monitoring of delamination and tool wear and for improving the machinability of composites for a wide variety of applications. The results showed that using solid carbide end mills leads to less delamination of materials during milling of GFRP and carbide-tipped end mills resulted in little tool wear or change in the depth of cut when used at high speeds along with an appropriate feed rate.