This paper focuses on the effect of the drill geometry on the drilling of woven Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer composite (CFRPs). Although different geometrical effects can be considered in drilling CFRPs, the present work focuses on the influence of point angle and wear because they are the important factors influencing hole quality and machining forces. Surface quality was evaluated in terms of delamination and superficial defects. Three different point angles were tested representative of the geometries commonly used in the industry. Two wear modes were considered, being representative of the wear patterns commonly observed when drilling CFRPs: flank wear and honed cutting edge. It was found that the crossed influence of the point angle and wear were significant to the thrust force. Delamination at the hole entry and exit showed opposite trends with the change of geometry. Also, cutting parameters were checked showing the feed’s dominant influence on surface damage.

This paper focuses on the analysis of drilling induced damage on biocomposites (woven fibers of cotton, flax and jute combined with polylactic acid, PLA, as the matrix). The main contribution of this work is the analysis of the influence of cutting parameters and drill geometry on fully biodegradable composites based on two different types of PLA and different fibers types. The damaged area was studied both at the hole entry and exit. Contrary to the behavior commonly observed when drilling conventional composites, delamination was negligible. The hole entry and exit damage were analyzed and quantified in terms of the fraying extension being the dominant. The damage extension was found to be dependent on the matrix, fiber type and drill geometry. The combination between cotton fiber and the small drill point angle showed the lowest level of damage. On the other hand, composite reinforced with flax fibers (those that exhibited the highest tensile strength) presented the greatest damage extension, increasing with the number of layers of the composite. The matrix based on polymer 10361D PLA, recommended for natural fibers because of the better interface cohesion, resulted in reduced fraying. Concerning the influence of cutting parameters, damage decreased when increasing the cutting speed and feed rate.

Drilling is one of the most frequent machining operations for carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites, carried out prior to assembly between structural components using mechanical joining. Delamination is the main damage mechanism involved during carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composite drilling causing an elevated percentage of workpiece rejection. Tool geometry strongly influences drilling performance. In this paper, an original work dealing with the comparison between three recently developed configurations (Brad center, Step drill and Reamer drills) in terms of drilling forces and delamination both for woven and tape carbon fiber-reinforced polymers is presented. Reamer drill showed the best results concerning productivity and delamination. Strong differences were found when hole quality obtained in tape and woven composite was compared: multidirectional composite presented poorer hole quality than woven composite under the same cutting conditions. The analysis of variance was developed in order to analyze the influence of each parameter showing the importance of feed rate on surface damage.