ABSTRACT
Hybrid laminates made of Carbon Fibre and Glass Fibre Reinforcement have become widely popular in various applications which are mainly due to their excellent structural strength coupled with lower cost. In all these applications, drilling plays a crucial role during the assembly of these structural components. This paper deals with the examination of the influencing parameters (feed rate, tool material) on thrust force during drilling of hybrid laminates. Statistical Design of Experiments has been used for the analysis of the drilling parameters on the thrust force. Taguchi’s L9 (32) array has been used to determine whether the response function is minimised by feed rate or tool material. Hole drilling on hybrid FRP laminate has been done using Solid Tungsten Carbide and High-Speed Steel tool material under controlled machining operations. The results reveal that the tool material has a higher influential effect on the thrust force when compared with the feed rate. Also, the morphology of hybrid laminate was obtained using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and the results indicate that surface texture was observed to be optimum.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
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Notes on contributors
N. S. Manjunatha Babu
Mr. N. S. Manjunatha Babu, Associate professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Dr T Thimmaiah Institute of Technology, VTU, Kolar Gold Fields. Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering and Masters Degree from Visvesvaraya Technological University. He has over 12 years of teaching experience. His research areas of interest are machining effect of composite laminates, stress analysis on engineering materials.
N. Rajesh Mathivanan
Dr. N. Rajesh Mathivanan, Professor and Domain Head, Advanced Composites Research Center (ACRC), Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, PES University, Bangalore. Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from Bangalore University and Masters Degree from Visvesvaraya Technological University. He received his Ph.D. degree from National Institute of Technology (NIT), Tiruchirappalli in the area of impact characteristics of composite laminates. His research interests include product development, impact characterization and machining effects on composite laminates.
K. Vijaya Kumar
Dr. K. Vijaya Kumar, Senior Manager, Aerospace Composite Division, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bangalore. He has over 15 years of experience in fabrication and processing fiber composites. He has published over 18 International journals and attended over 20 international conferences. He has six sigma black belt certified and involved in solving various issues arise in composites. His areas of interest are Bio-composites, Nano-composites, and Self healing composites for various applications.