Router Tool Research Articles

High-speed edge trimming of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites using coated router tools

During trimming of edges of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composite parts, issues such as resin degradation, delamination, and poor surface finish at the trimmed edges, and increased tool wear in cutting tools used is common. Therefore, it is essential to carry out investigations on edge trimming of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer to find the effect of cutting forces generated and the cutting tool temperature induced at different high speeds and feeds conditions. In this work, two different-coated router tools of titanium aluminum nitride-coated and diamond-like carbon-coated routers were used for investigating the effect of these coatings on cutting force and cutting tool temperature which affect the surface quality of trimmed carbon fiber-reinforced polymer. From the investigation, it was found that the diamond-like carbon-coated router tool has generated lower cutting forces, cutting tool temperatures, and, in turn, better surface finish even at high-speed conditions when compared to other tools. Due to the complex geometry of the router tool, online tool wear monitoring by acoustic emission technique was employed. Acoustic emission signals were taken as the measuring index of tool wear which shows good correlation with direct tool wear measurements. From the experiments, it was found that the tool performance of the diamond-like carbon-coated router is superior when compared to other tools. In addition, for edge trimming of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composite parts, the diamond-like carbon router tool performed without much disturbance for a length of machining of around 5.9 m which is about 46% of increase in length of machining when compared to uncoated router tool.

Influence of Router Tool Geometry on Surface Finish in Edge Trimming of Multi-Directional CFRP Material

The use of carbon fibres reinforced plastic (CFRP) composites material for product structures has been steadily increasing due to the superior material properties such as high strength, low weight and corrosion resistance especially in aerospace industry. This work presents a research on the influence of various router or burrs tool geometrical feature towards surface roughness in edge trimming process on a specific CFRP material. CFRP panel which measured in 3.41mm thickness with 28 plies in total has been chosen to be the main study material. Three various geometrical features of router tool made of uncoated tungsten carbide material with diameter of 6.35mm which vary in number of flute and helix angle were utilized to investigate the effect of surface roughness in edge trimming of CFRP material. Surface roughness measurement was taken using Mitutoyo Surftest SJ-410. Furthermore, optical microscope Nikon MM-800 is utilized to further observe the trimmed surfaces. The result reveals that tool type 3 (T3) resulted the lowest surface roughness with respect to the overall averaged Ra value which ranged between 2.22µm to 5.29µm whilst tool type 1 (T1) obtained the highest Ra values ranged between 2.86µm to 19.36µm. On the other hand, the tool type 2 (T2) falls in the middle between the rests of two others type of tool which stated the range of Ra average value was between 3.91µm to 5.28µm. This result is also supported by photomicrographs observation taken by optical microscope which elaborated and discussed further in this paper.

High-Speed Edge Trimming of CFRP and Online Monitoring of Performance of Router Tools Using Acoustic Emission.

Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) have found wide-ranging applications in numerous industrial fields such as aerospace, automotive, and shipping industries due to their excellent mechanical properties that lead to enhanced functional performance. In this paper, an experimental study on edge trimming of CFRP was done with various cutting conditions and different geometry of tools such as helical-, fluted-, and burr-type tools. The investigation involves the measurement of cutting forces for the different machining conditions and its effect on the surface quality of the trimmed edges. The modern cutting tools (router tools or burr tools) selected for machining CFRPs, have complex geometries in cutting edges and surfaces, and therefore a traditional method of direct tool wear evaluation is not applicable. An acoustic emission (AE) sensing was employed for on-line monitoring of the performance of router tools to determine the relationship between AE signal and length of machining for different kinds of geometry of tools. The investigation showed that the router tool with a flat cutting edge has better performance by generating lower cutting force and better surface finish with no delamination on trimmed edges. The mathematical modeling for the prediction of cutting forces was also done using Artificial Neural Network and Regression Analysis.

On the feasibility of synthesizing CAD software from specifications: generating maze router tools in ELF

The application of program synthesis techniques to the generation of technology-sensitive VLSI physical design tools is described. The architecture and implementation of a particular software generator (called ELF) targeted at the generation of maze routing software is described. ELF strives to meet the demands of the target technology by automatically generating maze router implementations to match the application requirements. ELF has three key features. First, a very high level language, lacking data structure implementation specifications, is used to describe algorithm design styles. Second, application-specific expertise about routing and application independent code synthesis techniques are used to guide search among alternative design styles for algorithms and data structures. Third, code generation is used to transform the resulting abstract descriptions of selected algorithms and data structures into final, executable code. Code generation is an incremental, stepwise refinement process. Experimental results are presented covering several correct. fully functional routers synthesized by ELF from varying high-level specifications. Results from synthetic and industrial benchmarks are examined to illustrate ELF's capabilities. >