Damage-Free Hole Making in Fiber-Reinforced Composites: An Innovative Tool Design Approach

Abstract

Drilling is an inevitable machining technique that facilitates the assembly of composite parts. Drilling with the traditional tools causes significant damage to the composite parts. The forces that are produced during drilling are mostly accountable for the damage or rejection of the parts. Therefore, the main aim of the present investigation is to reduce the forces and subsequent damage that is induced during drilling operation. Thus, new tool geometry has been conceptualized, designed, developed, and implemented to investigate the drilling behavior of sisal-epoxy and nettle-epoxy laminates. A comparative analysis has been made to compare the performance of the developed tool with the widely used twist drill. The performance has been compared based on the forces and associated drilling-induced damage. It was found that the developed tool geometry gives better results than the traditional twist drill in terms of minimization of forces and damage as well.

Keywords:

• Composites
• Damage
• Drilling
• Forces
• Tool