Methodology for Assessment of Factors Influencing Surface Roughness on the Drilling of Carbon Fiber-reinforced Composites

Abstract

In the present work, the effects of machining parameters on surface roughness during high-speed drilling of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) composite are presented. The machining experiments are carried out on lathe using two levels of factors. The factors considered were: % volume fraction of carbon fiber, cutting speed, drill diameter and feed rate. A procedure has been developed to assess and optimize the chosen factors to attain minimum surface roughness by incorporating: (i) response table and effect graph, (ii) normal probability plot (iii) analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique. From the test results, we observe that the technique used is convenient to predict the main effects and interaction effects of different influential combinations of machining parameters. Feed rate is the factor, which has greater influence on surface roughness followed by % volume fraction of fiber and drill diameter. The interaction between all parameters has more influence on surface roughness, followed by (drill diameter and feed rate) and (% volume fraction of fiber and drill diameter) comparing with other interactions on the machining of CFRPS composites