Research progress and perspective trend of drilling technology for carbon fiber reinforced polymer

Abstract

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) has been widely used in the aviation, space and automobile structural parts manufacturing due to its excellent physical and mechanical properties. However, the properties of CFRP materials with inhomogeneity and anisotropy are vastly different from metals. In the process of drilling, it is easy to produce delamination, tearing, burr and other defects, which seriously affect the quality of drilling. Therefore, drilling technology of CFRP-metal stacks has become a difficult problem in aircraft assembly process. This paper summarizes the researches of drilling mechanism of CFRP in recent years. The relationship between chip formation mechanism and fiber orientation angle is generalized. Meanwhile, the relationship between axial drilling force, drilling temperature and tool shape, workpiece material, process parameters is summarized. The causes, detection, evaluation methods and restraining measures of typical machining damage during CFRP drilling processes, such as delamination, burr and tearing are analyzed. The latest advances in material, geometric structure of CFRP drilling tools, and development of simulation technology of CFRP drilling process are expounded. It is also proposed that the establishment of accurate and reliable constitutive model is the key to the research of drilling simulation technology. The development trend of CFRP drilling technology is prospected by introducing new CFRP drilling technologies, such as variable process parameters drilling, robotic automatic drilling and suction-type internal chip removal drilling.