Mechanical and drilling process characterisation of herringbone sisal fabric reinforced vinyl ester sandwich composites

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the modern trend of industrial progress and technological development a natural fibre polymer composite plays a great demand in many of the structural applications. However, the problems associated with the machining of these composites lead to slowdown the consummations. Out of many machining methods, drilling is one among most repetitively used in the field of composites while joining. This work focused on drilling process optimisation using three different parameters, such as feed rate (mm/min), speed of spindle (rpm), drill diameter (mm). The sisal fibre herringbone pattern reinforced with vinyl ester polymer composite prepared using a conventional compression moulding technique. The results reveal that delamination factor at entry increases at lower (450rpm) and higher (1860,2700) spindle speed for 4 and 12 mm bit diameter, but feed rate various. The delamination factor at exit can be controlled at higher spindle speed (2700 rpm) with lower feed rate (30 mm/min) for 12 mm bit diameter. The drill diameter is having a significant effect on the delamination factor, both the entry and exit of the hole. Result reveals that for 2700 rpm spindle speed, 70 mm/min feed and 10 mm diameter exhibit minimum effort based on grey regression analysis.