G040082 Electric discharge assisted drilling of CFRP

Abstract

Recently, carbon fiber reinforced plastic(CFRP)laminate is used for structural parts of airplane, car, and so on,because it has high specific intensity, high specific stiffness and high chemical resistant. However CFRP is difficult tobe drilled clear holes. Moreover, cutting tool is easily worn out with each drilling. The more cutting tool is worn, themore delamination of CFRP is easy to occur. This paper describes the attempt of electric discharge assisted drilling ofCFRP to improve the quality of drilling holes. Cutting experiments were performed using tungsten carbide drills 6.Omm in diameter with electric discharge. Electric discharge enhanced drilling may have effect to reduce delaminationbecause electric discharge damages the carbon fiber and decreases the thrust force of drilling to cut the carbon fiber. It isrequired to optimize the electric discharge power in future work. Because in the high power case, epoxy resin is burnedand in the low power case, carbon fiber is not damaged.