COMPOSITES MACHINING
Materials Choices Test Innovative Cutting Solutions
Cutting tools step up to advanced composite materials
Jim Lorincz Senior Editor
W
ith advances in material sciences and the ability to design composite parts with new virtual software technology, cutting tool manufacturers are being
challenged to continually evolve and develop solutions for these versatile materials. “Common challenges in machining composites are excessive tool wear, delamination of layers, uncut fi bers, fi ber pullout, and scrapped parts in both milling and drilling,” said Mike MacArthur, vice president-engineering, RobbJack Corp. (Lincoln, CA). “Another challenge when machin- ing composites is that they are made in an autoclave as unmachined parts and don’t always match the CAD fi le associated with the part. When that happens, multiple operations are needed to bring them into the tight tolerances required.”
Iscar offers a wide selection of PCD drills and milling cutters for a range of composite-specifi c industry applications.
For machining composites, there are three com- mon types of drills—solid carbide, diamond-coated carbide, and PCD (polycrystalline diamond), accord- ing to MacArthur. “Each has its place. Carbide drills are usually used only for manual operations because of their poor tool life. Both diamond coating and PCD are the drills of choice for most applications in abrasive composites like carbon fi ber. Diamond coating is excellent for drilling, and in some applica- tions you can even increase tool life over PCD drills. Diamond-coated drills, however, can’t be resharp- ened like PCD cutters and are disposable. PCD drills are an excellent choice for drilling in CFRP
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AdvancedManufacturing.org | February 2017
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