The Effect of Cutting Speeds on Tool Wear and Surface Roughness when Milling Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer

Abstract

Carbon fibre reinforced polymeric material (CFRP) is increasingly being used to replace metallic materials, particularly in the automobile and aerospace industries. The mechanical properties of the CFRP such as excellent weight to strength ratio give beneficial outcome in improving the performance of the part made from CFRP. However, machining of CFRP such as milling is difficult and challenging due to the abrasiveness of the CFRP. Therefore, the influence of cutting speeds on tool wear and surface roughness when milling CFRP in a dry condition is the aim of this paper. The milling test was carried out using 6 mm WC-Co end mill tool having 30° helix angle. Milling of CFRP was performed with three different cutting speeds, V c (94, 113 and 132 m/min) while feed rate, f (1800 mm/min) and radial depth of cut, a e (2 mm) were remained constant. Milling CFRP with V c =132 m/min resulted in increasing of tool wear by 15 % and increasing of surface roughness by 10% when compared with V c = 94 m/min. CFRP surface damages such as matrix smearing, delamination and fibre pull out was observed when milling with higher cutting speed.