Investigation of CFRP machining with diamond abrasive cutters

Abstract

Diamond abrasive cutters are more and more used for industrial applications of CFRP laminate machining, due to their resistance to abrasion and low cost. The objective of the approach is to improve productivity during trimming operations, by choosing adapted tools and cutting parameters. The objective of this article is to determine to what extent feedrate and spindle speed can be increased. To do so, specific cutting energy (Esp) and cutting forces are studied. Designs of Experiments and ANOVA are performed in order to analyze the influence of tool (grit size, level of nickel and diameter) and process (feed per revolution and cutting speed) parameters. It shows that high cutting speed is favourable to the cut due to thermal effects. Conversely, the study of specific cutting energy reveals that the feed increase is limited by diamond grit size and level of nickel due to the saturation of the tool intergrit space.