Abstract
Carbon fibre composites are a key component of aircraft structures because of their enhanced material properties such as favourable strength to weight ratios when compared to metal alloys. During the assembly process of an aircraft, carbon fibre components are joined to other structures using rivets, bolts, and fasteners, and as part of the joining process, the components will need to be machined or drilled. Unlike metal alloys, composites are sensitive to heat and are vulnerable to internal structural damage from machining tools. They are also susceptible to a reduction in strength when fibres are exposed to moisture. In the machining process, carbon fibre composites may be drilled using oils to lubricate carbide machining tools. In this study, a description of the experimental apparatus is provided along with an investigation to determine the influence synthetic biodegradable lubricating oil has on drill rotational speed, drilling load, and drilling temperature when using a pneumatic drill to machine carbon fibre composite material.
Highlights
Materials have always been an integral part an aircraft’s design process, and today, carbon fibre composites are much cheaper to manufacture on a large industrial scale and are used extensively in the aerospace industry where strength to weight ratios are key to performance and efficiency
In through order to tocarbon investigate the differences differences in spindle spindle speed, this study compared the effects effects of drilling drilling without the use of synthetic biodegradable oil mist
Applying synthetic biodegradable oil directly to the drill bit tip area whilst drilling carbon fibre composites minimises the friction between the cutting edge and sample and minimises the Applying synthetic oildry directly drill bit tip whilst drilling carbon fibre reduction in spindlebiodegradable speed compared to drilling. to Thethe experimental dataarea shows that the minimum drop in spindle speed whilst drilling with anthe oil mist
Summary
Materials have always been an integral part an aircraft’s design process, and today, carbon fibre composites are much cheaper to manufacture on a large industrial scale and are used extensively in the aerospace industry where strength to weight ratios are key to performance and efficiency. During the machining process for carbon-epoxy materials, 50% of the heat due to friction during machining is absorbed by the workpiece, whilst the other 50% is absorbed by the tool. This is far greater than in metals, where the chips that occur during the cutting by the machining tool absorb 75% of total heat created, with the tool absorbing 18%, and the metal being worked absorbs just 7% [1]
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