ON THE MACHINING OF FIBER-REINFORCED PLASTIC (FRP) COMPOSITE LAMINATES

With the increasing use of fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) composites outside the defense, space and aerospace industries, namely, civilian industries, machining of these materials is assuming a significant role. Unit cost rather than solely performance at any cost will be the consideration for the implementation of FRP composites to consumer industries. The current knowledge of machining FRP composites, unfortunately, is inadequate for its optimum utilization in many applications. This paper presents some observations made on the orthogonal machining of unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced plastic (UD-CFRP) laminates with different fiber orientations. Iosipescu shear test was adopted to evaluate the inplane shear strength of varied fiber angle test specimens. A model for predicting the cutting forces and the dependence of cutting direction on machinability requirements is presented.