In recent years, carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) materials are gaining tremendous attention by industries especially in aerospace industry for product structures due to the superior material properties such as high strength, low weight and corrosion. This study presents a research on the influence of machining parameters utilizing uncoated tungsten carbide router or burrs tool towards surface quality during edge trimming of a specific CFRP material. CFRP panel of 10.31 mm in thickness with the total of 38 number of plies has been chosen to be the main study material. A famous statistical method namely Taguchi Method (L4) has been deployed to plan the overall experimental design. Two main factors investigated in this study were spindle speed and feed rate. Surface roughness measurement was taken using Mitutoyo Surftest SJ-410. Moreover, optical microscope Nikon MM-800 is utilized to further observe the trimmed surfaces. The result reveals that the spindle speed was the most influential parameter towards the trimmed surface quality. Run no. 3 (R3) generated approximately 2.5 times better Ra value than Run no. 3 (R2) at constant feed rate (1500 mm/min) but vary in spindle speed by the difference of 3000 rpm. From further observations of trimmed surface through optical microscope, obvious matrix degradation and wrench areas were spotted on the R2 trimmed surface compared to the R3. From ANOVA analysis, spindle speed was also indicated as the significant factor. Details results elaborated and discussed further in this paper.

The main aim of this research was to investigate the effect of machining parameters towards surface quality during edge trimming process on a specific CFRP material. There were two variation of machining parameters focused in this work namely spindle speed (N) and feed rate (V_f). The CFRP panel is measured 3.25 mm in thickness and the type of fabric was unidirectional (UD). It has 28 number of plies in total and were arranged multi-directional. Router or burr tool geometry made of uncoated tungsten carbide with a diameter of 6.35 mm was used to perform the edge trimming process. 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 the smallest value of the surface roughness (1.31 µm) is obtained by Run 8 (R8) which the spindle speed, N applied was 2506 rpm and feed rate, V_f at 376 mm/min. Meanwhile, the highest surface roughness value (12.62 µm) exhibited by the R9 which had the highest setting of spindle speed, N 7518 rpm and the highest feed rate, V_f 1128 mm/min. The result is supported by the observation of trimmed surface through optical microscopy which clearly exhibits uncut fibers and matrix degradation condition. Details results elaborated and discussed further in this paper.

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.

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