Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2017) 93:2433–2445
DOI 10.1007/s00170-017-0614-5
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
3D level comprehensive evaluation of hole quality in drilling
carbon fiber-reinforced plastics
Gong dong Wang 1,2 & Nan Li 1 & Xu hai Xiong 1,3 & Qiang Chong 1 & Li Zhou 1 &
Shao wei Lu 1,3
Received: 4 October 2016 / Accepted: 5 June 2017 / Published online: 2 July 2017
# Springer-Verlag London Ltd. 2017
Abstract Drilling quality can affect the properties of composite
components; nevertheless, the evaluation on the drilling quality
of carbon fiber-reinforced plastics (CFRP) mainly relies on ex-
perience and there is no mature theory that can be used to assess
the drilling quality. This paper chose appropriate factors such as
drilling parameters, conditions, and materials as the evaluation
indexes and presented a comprehensive evaluation model.
Further, the mathematical software MATLAB was used to fit
and analyze the relationships of the drilling parameters and the
evaluation sub-factors (delamination, surface roughness, and
burrs). Then, the semi-empirical polynomial function of 3D level
was established based on historical data of drilling experiments.
In addition, the fitting result of the historical data indicates that
the tool materials and the feed rate show the most significant
influence on the drilling quality. In order to contrast the optimi-
zation results of the numerical examples, the drilling experiments
have been conducted, and the results of the comprehensive eval-
uation were found to be in a good agreement with the experi-
mental results through judging the quality of the holes.
Keywords Carbon fiber-reinforced plastics . Comprehensive
evaluation . Data fitting . Drilling quality . Drilling
optimization
* Nan Li
daidaidegaga@gmail.com
1
School of Aerospace Engineering, Shenyang Aerospace University,
Shenyang, Liaoning 110136, China
2
Key Laboratory of Fundamental Science for National Defence of
Aeronautical Digital Manufacturing Process, Shenyang Aerospace
University, Shenyang, China
3
Liaoning Key Laboratory of Advanced Polymer Matrix Composites
Manufacturing Technology, Shenyang, China
1 Introduction
Carbon fiber-reinforced plastics (CFRP) have been used ex-
tensively in various industrial domains, such as aerospace,
automobile, machinery, and nuclear energy, owing to having
a combination of high specific modulus, high specific
strength, and excellent resistance to high temperature, corro-
sion, and fatigue. Key problems encountered include delami-
nation, tear, and burr when drilling the composite materials
because of the improper selection of drilling parameters,
which have a strong impact on the qualities of the composite
components.
For the sake of reducing the defects, previous researchers
studied the effect of machining parameters on the drilling
quality. High spindle speed and low feed rate could decrease
the thrust force to reduce the defects [1] and also shorten the
life of the drills [2, 3]. The surface roughness at the hole exit
was lower when employing a variable feed rate in drilling
process [4] and the feed rate had more effect on the quality
of the hole [5]. Several researchers investigated the influence
of tool geometries, tool angles, and various tool coatings.
Certain different tool geometries specially designed had a pos-
itive effect on the drilling quality [6–11]. Moreover, smaller
chisel edge thickness and increased point angle are the main
reasons for lower thrust and wear rate [12]. The increase of
drilling quality could be observed by the absence of delami-
nation and the decrease of roughness values when the drills
with the diverse coatings were applied [13, 14]. In addition,
other factors such as different ply orientations, the pilot hole,
the support, the temperature, and the resin have also been
discussed in the following literatures [5, 15–19].
At the aspect of the drilling quality evaluation of com-
posite materials, someone sought to set up a criterion to
evaluate the drilling quality. The delamination factor
primitively established by Chen [20] have been widely
2434 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2017) 93:2433–2445

exerted in the drilling quality evaluation. However, a

quality function, as a more reasonable quality evaluation
method, was proposed by Robert Voß [21] depending on
the work [20, 22, 23]. Alternatively, another new evalua-
tion methodology reflecting the severity degree of the
defects preferably during the drilling process, could be
appropriate for describing the exit drilling quality of C/E
composite materials in accordance with the research by
Zhao dong [24]. On the side, Richard Zemann [25] used
two methods to distinguish the occurring damages in fray-
ing, delamination, and splintering, then established dam-
age evaluation standard of the hole surface. Subsequently,
the superiority of some methodologies based on mathe-
matics has also been discovered. Principle component
analysis was utilized for data reduction and unsupervised
pattern recognition analysis in the paper from Navid Zarif
Karimi [26]. UA Khashaba [27] employed artificial neural
network (ANN) and multivariable regression (MVR)
models to analyze the machinability parameters of the
drilled holes and the comparison between the experimen-
tal results and the simulation results illustrated the effec-
tiveness of the ANNs method. E. Kilickap [28] presented
the application of the Taguchi method and analysis of
variance (ANOVA) for minimization of delamination in- Fig. 1 Comprehensive evaluation model of CFRP drilling quality
duced by the drilling parameters and the drill point angle.
The optimum drilling parameter combination was summa- experimental data are analyzed in Section 3, and the im-
rized by using the analysis of signal-to-noise ratio. pacts of various process parameters on drilling quality are
From the above, many scholars conducted extensive verified. Finally, conclusions are stated in the Section 4 of
researches about the drilling quality, whereas the studies the paper.
on experimental data processing and drilling evaluation
were extremely limited. At that, the conventional evalua-
tion criteria were singleness, commonly one, or two di-
mensions such as the thrust force, the delamination factor, 2 Comprehensive evaluation methodology of CFRP
and its improved form. In addition, the effects of the dril- drilling quality
ling parameters on the drilling quality were considered,
respectively. There is no relatively systematic evaluation 2.1 Model building
standard for drilling quality consisting of the comprehen-
sive influences as many drilling parameters as possible in There are so many factors influencing hole quality and can be
composite materials at present. Hence, this paper presents summarized as follows.
an evaluation method of 3D level of drilling CFRP based In the aspect of drilling parameters, the spindle speed,
on experimental data, which gives a full consideration to the feed rate, the stacking sequence, and the tool structure
the evaluation criteria and the drilling parameters. are the main factors. An increase of spindle speed leads to
Through the data processing, additionally, assisted with a decrease in thrust force during drilling CFRP plates,
scanning electron microscope (SEM), the comprehensive resulting in high drilling quality; if spindle speed is overly
function of the drilling parameters on the output drilling high, the defects will develop with the decreasing sharp-
quality was founded, and that could be exerted to guide ness of the tool on account of accumulated built up edges.
the practical work. The rest of the paper is arranged as When the cutting quantities per revolution increases along
follows: A comprehensive evaluation model of 3D level with the increment of the feed rate, the higher thrust force
on drilling quality is established in Section 2, which will will appear and bring about much more defects. The me-
be employed to assess the different process programs with chanical property of composite laminates can be different
various parameters and to obtain the optimal drilling pro- with the variation of orientations of fiber layers, which
cess program ultimately. The observation results obtained can result in the different fracture mechanism of the fiber;
from ultrasonic scanning machine and the analysis of therefore, there is a diversity of the hole surface quality.
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2017) 93:2433–2445
Fig. 2 Diagrammatic sketch of delamination
The minor diameter at the bottom of the step drill pos-
sesses a function of pre-drilling and the major diameter at
the top has a function of reaming; thus, the step drill
makes full use of the method of drilling-chambering-
reaming to drill the composite materials; the core drill
bit with a unique interior structure employs the grinding
pattern which makes for the discharge of the chips and
enhances processing efficiency.
As for drilling condition, the guide sleeve, the support, the
pilot hole, and the temperature obviously influence the hole
quality. The guiding device guarantees the verticality of the
drill bit and the machining face and restrains deviation of the
drilling center for ease of acquiring a good quality incorporat-
ing better circularity, verticality, and location degree at the
hole entrance. Furthermore, the support plate behind the lam-
inates can eliminate the delamination at the hole exit; at the
same time, the defects such as burrs and tears will also de-
crease. The pilot hole can remove the pushing effect of chisel
edge on the composite materials and the possibility of the
defect formation will be reduced along with the decrease of
the thrust force. In addition, the increment of temperature of
the cutting region can increase the machinability of the com-
posite materials; however, the resin matrix will be melted, or
even worse, decomposed, when the temperature comes to the
glass transition temperature.
For the material, the reinforced fiber, the tool material,
and the resin matrix have a great influence on drilling.
The difference of reinforced fibers can account for a di-
versity of the mechanical properties of the composite
Fig. 3 Section for scanning
2435
Fig. 4 The graphical evaluation methodology of 3D level
laminates. Therefore, the tear length of T800 is much
longer than T300 when drilling them under the same con-
ditions. The material of tools plays a significant role on
the hole quality. The abrasion resistance and the drilling
quality with the coated drills are much better than the
uncoated cemented carbide drills owing to the refinement
of the coating. Similarly, the resin matrix can affect the
performance of the composite products. For instance, the
thermosetting resin has the excellent properties such as
mechanics, electricity, thermology, and corrosion resis-
tance, and that the thermoplastic resin has the good per-
formance on the electrical insulating property, the aging
resistance, the fatigue resistance, and the fire resistance.
At the result of analyzing all of the influencing factors
on the drilling quality, an assessment model of the drilling
quality could be divided broadly into two grades, namely
the first-grade evaluation indexes including drilling pa-
rameters, drilling conditions, and drilling materials, and
the second-grade evaluation indexes such as spindle
speed, feed rate, the support plate, and the tool materials.
The evaluation system with regard to the optimization of
drilling programs was established as shown in Fig. 1.
In order to quantify the characteristic of the drilling quality
and the input drilling parameters as mentioned above, a semi-
empirical polynomial function was proposed as the function
of historical data of drilling experiments. Unlike other quality
evaluation principle, an evaluation methodology of 3D level
was proposed and then a combination of three different eval-
uation sub-factor vectors (Qi) which were critical for the hole
quality was utilized to assess the hole quality, which is de-
scribed in Eq. (1),
Q ¼ A  Q i ¼ ½ a b c  ½ Q 1 Q2 Q3 T
¼ a  Q1 þ b  Q2 þ c  Q3 ð1Þ
Where A is the coefficients matrix of the evaluation sub-
factors (Qi) coefficients, and the weighting coefficients (a, b,
2436 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2017) 93:2433–2445

Table 1 The spindle speed grade standard and the membership function

Spindle speed grade Low Medium High

Optimal degree of 0.4 0.6 0.9

hole
Value(r/min) 1500 2500 4000
Membership 8 8 8
> 1
< 2500−n n < 1500 >
> n−1500 >
<
n−2500
2500 ≤n < 4000
function >
< 2500−1500 1500≤n < 2500
(μi(n),i = l, m, h) 1500≤n < 2500 4000−2500
> 2500−1500
: 4000−n >
:
1 n≥4000
0 else >
> 2500≤n < 4000
>
: 4000−2500 0 else
0 else

c) are recognized as the extent of contribution to the compre-
hensive evaluation model Q.
Q1 represents the delamination which is usually regarded as
the severe defect in drilling composite materials and that could
decline the stiffness and strength of the laminates, even has an
effect on the integrity of the component structure. The delam-
ination will appear as the vertical thrust force exceeds the
bonding strength of the fiber-resin interface. In addition, the
delamination consists of not only the surface delamination but
also the inter-laminar delamination. It could be the potential
threat in the component of plane when the delamination has
occurred. The response delamination in drilling process is
characterized using the SEM, and that is quantified by the
formula to compare conveniently as followed in Fig. 2 and
Eq. (2) [20].
F d ¼ Dmax =Dnom
Where, Dmax is the maximum diameter of the damage hole
and the Dnom is the nominal diameter of the hole.
Q2 represents the surface roughness which is a key
concern in component assembly; moreover, the surface
texture and the geometric tolerance of the hole wall
coupled with the drilling operation are the major factors
in the assembly process. Along with the direction of dril-
ling, the distribution of the surface roughness appears a
significant difference. In an attempt to measure the
surface roughness, the holes were divided into two halves
and the small part was used for SEM, as shown in Fig. 3.
The average surface roughness (Ra) was used to indicate
the magnitude of hole wall surface roughness. In order to
ensure the accuracy of the data, the measurements were
carried out for several times using the surface roughness
instrument with a probe stylus.
Q3 represents the burrs in drilling composite, which are
uncut fibers and mainly concentrate on the exit, slightly
on the entrance and the hole wall. The existence of the
burrs might give rise to the failures arising from stress
concentration in the junction; as a result, the performance
of the components would deteriorate during usage. For the
detection of the burrs, area-method was not appropriate
because of the difficulty of the measurement. Therefore,
a new method based on the length of uncut fibers was
ð2Þ
mentioned to denote the defect of the hole burrs. The
formula for indicating the burrs was developed as follows:
I ¼ ∑ai =D; i ¼ 1; 2; 3⋯n ð3Þ
Where, ai is the length of the burr, D is the nominal
diameter of the hole and I is the indicator of the burrs.
Along the drilling direction, an evaluation factor to identify
the degree of the hole quality is required according to the
comprehensive analysis. Consequently, a more exact evalua-
tion methodology of 3D level was built up, as depicted in
Fig. 4.

Table 2 The feed rate grade standard and the membership function

Feed rate grade Low Medium High

Optimal degree of 0.9 0.6 0.3

hole
Value(mm/min) 6 12 24
Membership 8 8 8
> 1
< 12−n n< 6 >
> n−6 >
<
n−12
12≤n < 24
< 12−6 6 ≤n < 12
>
function
(μi(n),i = s, m, h) 6≤n < 12 24−12
>
: 12−6 24−n >
:
1 n≥24
0 else >
> 12≤n < 24
>
: 24−12 0 else
0 else
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2017) 93:2433–2445
Table 3 The expert evaluation
for qualitative factor Influence factors Tool material
YZ LJ
Value 0.6 0.7
In general, in this paper, instead of previous studies that
only considered the single evaluation factor, a combination
of several evaluation factors was considered comprehensively.
According to this comprehensive evaluation index, the hole
quality would be investigated accurately. Furthermore, the
comprehensive evaluation model would be more appropriate
to summarize the holes’ quality.
2.2 Multiple parameters function
In the establishment process of the comprehensive evaluation
model on the basis of drilling programs, it was founded that
some drilling parameters were inconspicuous for the drilling
quality. Moreover, there is a requirement that the construction
of the comprehensive evaluation model should be concise
under the premise of ensuring the drilling parameters as much
as possible. And what is important is that this model is used to
assess the schemes in advance to give a proper direction for
the factory production. Therefore, there is a need to simplify
the comprehensive evaluation model and the drilling parame-
ters of spindle speed, feed rate, tool material, and stacking
sequence are select out from Fig. 1 to form the comprehensive
evaluation function, as listed in Qi (i = 1,2,3).
 
Qi ¼ B  X þ H ¼ ∑ bij X j þ hi ; i ¼ 1; 2; 3; j ¼ 1; 2; 3; 4 ð4Þ
Where, the X is the drilling parameter matrix of spindle
speed, feed rate, tool material, and stacking sequence. The B
is the weight coefficient matrix of the drilling parameters and
H is called the compensation of the drilling quality.
With the integration of the Eq. (1), the comprehensive eval-
uation function of 3D level in Eq. (5) was established to assess
the drilling schemes.
Q ¼ dX 1 þ eX 2 þ fX 3 þ gX 4 þ h ð5Þ
2.3 Theoretical verification
According the idea of Section 2.2, the theoretical verification
of the comprehensive evaluation function of 3D level will be
further coped within this section.
Firstly, in terms of the degree of importance of each eval-
uation factors Q1, Q2, Q3, a set of corresponding coefficients
were calculated by expert evaluation approach as the function
of a series of drilling applications on the composite spars and
the skin of a certain type fighter, A =[0.6 0.1 0.3]. In addition,
2437
Stacking sequence
J [0°]16s [±45°]8s [0°/0°/0°/45°/0°/0°/−45°/0°]2s
0.8 0.3 0.7 0.8
each Qi in the semi-empirical polynomial function was also a
multiple linear regression function for the hole quality consists
of four input drilling parameters. Consequently, the relative
weight for the spindle speed, feed rate, tool material, and
stacking sequence was acquired by fitting based on the histor-
ical drilling data.
2.3.1 Parameter processing
The method of the fitting was conducted by the mathematical
software MATLAB. With the aim to fit the data depending on
the function mode conveniently, there is a requirement to
transform the indirect values of the input parameters into the
values that have a direct and relevant connection with the
drilling quality. Therefore, several approaches frequently used
in the fuzzy theory were proposed to assign the degree of
membership for the optimal drilling quality. Furthermore, ac-
cording to the difference of drilling parameters, the parameters
can be divided into two parts: quantitative factors and quali-
tative factors. The degree of membership of the quantitative
factor can be computed by the experiential formulation, mem-
bership function, and actual data. For the qualitative factors,
the degree of membership can be assessed by experts [29].
2.3.2 The membership of quantitative factor
At the actual production, the hand-held drill was employed
extensively when drilling composite materials and its spindle
speed could reach up to 4000 r/min. The higher the spindle
speed, the better the hole quality will be. As a result, the
spindle speed grade standard and the degree of membership
Fig. 5 Schematic diagram of burrs
2438 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2017) 93:2433–2445

Table 4 Parameters selection of drilling programs

Condition attributes

Sample Speed Feed rate(mm/ Stacking Tool Guide Support Pilot Reinforced Tool Resin
(r/min) min) sequence structure sleeve hole fiber material matrix

1 3600 20 [0°]16s T ✔ ✕ ✕ T300 YZ Phenolic

2 3600 10 [0°]16s T ✔ ✕ ✕ T300 YZ Phenolic
3 3600 5 [0°]16s T ✔ ✕ ✕ T300 YZ PEEK
4 2400 5 [0°]16s T ✕ ✕ ✕ T300 YZ PEEK
5 1200 5 [0°]16s T ✕ ✕ ✕ T300 YZ PEEK
6 3600 5 [0°]16s T ✔ ✕ ✕ T300 LJ PEEK
7 3600 5 [0°]16s T ✔ ✕ ✕ T300 J Epoxy
8 3600 5 BEST T ✔ ✕ ✕ T300 YZ Epoxy
9 3600 5 [±45°]8s T ✔ ✕ ✕ T300 YZ Epoxy
10 3600 5 BEST T ✔ ✔ ✔ T300 J Epoxy

The phenolic and epoxy resin are the thermosetting resin, and the PEEK is the thermoplastic resin. The best stacking sequence is a new stacking rule
having the characteristic of delamination resistance that was calculated by simulated annealing algorithm [30], and the stacking sequence is [0°/0°/0°/
45°/0°/0°/−45°/0°]2s
T twist drill, YZ cemented carbide, LJ diamond-like coating, J diamond coating

of the spindle speed with respect to the optimal drilling quality
were presented. The membership function was established, as
listed in Table 1.
The higher the feed rate, the worse the hole quality will be.
Thus the feed rate grade standard has been divided into three
categories, and the membership function was established, as
listed in Table 2.
The score interval was defined as (0.0, 0.1), and the dril-
ling quality is positively associated with the score. Table 3
shows that all of factors were marked according to the
drilling programs in this article.
Now that the relationships of the drilling parameters with
the drilling quality have been established, the fitting process
would be proceeding easily.

2.3.3 The membership of qualitative factor 2.3.4 Data fitting

For the qualitative factors, including the stacking se-
quence and the tool materials, through summarizing the
experience of a certain aviation enterprise, the experts
were invited to mark the degree of membership of quali-
tative factors with respect to the optimal drilling quality.
Depending on the historical drilling data derived from
drilling applications on the composite spars and the skin
of a certain type fighter, combining the quantified param-
eters from Section 2.3.1, the multiple linear regression
functions for Q i associated with the four drilling

Table 5 The quantifications table

of the drilling parameters Condition attributes

Sample Spindle Feed rate Tool Stacking

speed(quantification) (quantification) material(quantification) sequence(quantification)

1 3600 (0.82) 20 (0.4) YZ (0.6) [0°]16s (0.3)

2 3600 (0.82) 10 (0.7) YZ (0.6) [0°]16s (0.3)
3 3600 (0.82) 5 (0.9) YZ (0.6) [0°]16s (0.3)
4 2400 (0.58) 5 (0.9) YZ (0.6) [0°]16s (0.3)
5 1200 (0.4) 5 (0.9) YZ (0.6) [0°]16s (0.3)
6 3600 (0.82) 5 (0.9) LJ (0.7) [0°]16s (0.3)
7 3600 (0.82) 5 (0.9) J (0.8) [0°]16s (0.3)
8 3600 (0.82) 5 (0.9) YZ (0.6) BEST (0.8)
9 3600 (0.82) 5 (0.9) YZ (0.6) [±45°]8s (0.5)
10 3600 (0.82) 5 (0.9) J (0.8) BEST (0.8)
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2017) 93:2433–2445 2439

Table 6 The rank of the samples

Sample 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Q 2.55807 2.96567 3.23747 3.03027 2.87487 3.44397 3.65057 3.34947 3.28227 3.76257
Ranking 10 8 6 7 9 3 2 4 5 1

parameters were worked out by MATLAB, and then ana-
lyzed for the relevance. Consequently, a series of fitting
polynomial functions are shown in the Eq. (6)-(8).
Q1 ¼ −0:2475X 1 −0:4587X 2 −1:4025X 3 −0:0958X 4
þ 3:0539; R
¼ 0:9321 ð6Þ
Q2 ¼ −3:1000X 1 −2:2500X 2 −3:7695X 3 −0:2417X 4
þ 9:9227; R
¼ 0:9529 ð7Þ
Q3 ¼ −1:3496X 1 −2:8619X 2 −2:8262X 3 −0:4746X 4
þ 6:6612; R
¼ 0:9327 ð8Þ
Then, according to the degree of importance of each eval-
uation factors Q1, Q2, Q3 from section 2.3,
Q ¼ 0:6  Q1 þ 0:1  Q2 þ 0:3  Q3
¼ −0:86338X 1 −1:35879X 2 −2:06561X 3 −0:22403X 4
þ 4:82297 ð9Þ
For the Eq. (6), it can be seen that the coefficient of the tool
materials offers a maximum absolute value; meanwhile, it can
be understood that the weight of the tool materials is maximal.
By contrast, the others’ effects are relatively minor for the
delamination. Furthermore, the direct factor for the delamina-
tion is the thrust force, and the composite could be cut away
easily with a sharper tool which provides a smaller thrust
force. Therefore, the effect of the tool materials on the delam-
ination around the holes exits is obvious.
From the Eq. (7), it shows the result of the holes surface
roughness can be affected mostly by the tool materials.
However, the spindle speed and the feed rate present a relative
importance for the hole surface roughness. The grinding of
refined grains within the coating drills can offer a better sur-
face texture, and the reasonable combination of the spindle
speed and the feed rate also give a good result of the hole
surface roughness. At the same time, the formula provides a
correlative prediction as well.
For the Eq. (8), it indicates that the feed rate has the major
similar significance for the burrs; however, the tool materials
seem like the similar significance. In drilling composite, it is
not hard to find the more the feed rate, the more the burrs will
be. High feed rate decreases the cutting capacity of cutting
lips, and the generation of the burrs will be increased likewise.
Similarly, the generation of the burrs presents regional char-
acteristics and the regions have a relationship with the angle
between the fiber orientation and cutting direction, as plotted
in Fig. 5. The result of the experiments also validated that the
ply orientation of the bottom correlated with the burrs, and the
layer of 45° in the bottom would generate less burrs.
Consequently, the comprehensive evaluation function for
Q (Eq. (9)) has confirmed and also conformed to actual cir-
cumstance of drilling. The weight degrees of the input drilling
parameters were recognized, and the index of tool materials
exhibited the distinct significance, followed by the feed rate.
Further, the evaluation methodology of 3D level containing
the three evaluation factors could reflect the holes quality
comprehensively, and then could be introduced into factory
production for the applicable significance.

2.3.5 Instance analysis

In order to meet the purpose of application, the reliability of

Fig. 6 Schematic diagram of the experimental setup
the evaluation methodology of 3D level need to be examined
theoretically and practically. Correspondingly, a series of ex-
periment schemes were designed for ease of the establishment
and the verification of the comprehensive evaluation model,
as shown in Table 4.
In accordance with the multiple linear regression functions,
the quantifications of the drilling parameters mentioned in
Section 2.3.1 are listed in the Table 5.
2440
Fig. 7 Drilling tools and micro Cemented carbide drill
geometry
According to the deduced formulas Eq. (9), bonding the
quantification of the drilling parameters (Table 5), the values
of the drilling quality of the 10 schemes have been calculated.
As the result, the hole with the optimal quality could be gained
by using the 10th scheme. The rank of the drilling quality was
listed in the Table 6.
3 Results and discussion
3.1 Defects observation
In order to verify the result of the evaluation, the schemes that
were the same with the programs in comprehensive evaluation
were adopted to conduct the drilling experiments and the spin-
dle speed, the feed rate, the tool material, and the stacking
sequence were taken into account to discuss. Further, the
carbon/epoxy resin prepreg T300 was employed to layer and
the composite laminates were solidified by the autoclave. In
addition, there was a design of the experimental platform, as
shown in Fig. 6. An improved vertical drilling machine adding
a CNC control unit was applied as the machine tool, which
was also equipped with the dynamometer and the charge am-
plifier to acquire the thrust force. The imported drills (Fig. 7)
including the cemented carbide drill, the diamond-like coating
drill, and the diamond coating drill were used to accomplish
the drilling experiments, and the detailed tool geometrical pa-
rameters are listed in Table 7.
Finally, the external defect of the drilling quality, such as
the delamination and the burrs, was detected using the ultra-
sonic scanning machine as shown in Table 8. The result of the
comprehensive evaluation was found to be in a good agree-
ment with the experimental result through the comparison of
the ranking of the comprehensive evaluation and the delami-
nation factor and scanning. The quality of holes reduced
Table 7 Tool geometrical
parameters Tool type Helical angle/(°)
Carbide drill 30
DLC drill 30
PCD drill 30
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2017) 93:2433–2445
Diamond-like coating drill Diamond coating drill
gradually along with the ranking from 1 to 10 and the ultra-
sonic scanning also revealed that defects such as burrs, delam-
ination had increased gradually. From the comparison of the
drilling schemes in Table 4 and Table 8, it could be concluded
that the influence of the tool material on the drilling quality is
most impressive, followed by feed rate, spindle speed, and the
stacking sequence, and that corresponded to the multiple lin-
ear regression function Q.
On the other side, for the internal defect of the drilling
quality, especially the surface morphology of holes, the
SEM analysis was utilized to record the defects. Table 9 de-
scribes the typical defects observed in the holes. It can be seen
from the comparison of the surface morphologies that refine-
ment of the tool materials and the higher rotation speed of the
cutting lips offer a better surface morphology, and the dam-
ages at the hole exit are more impressive than the entrance. In
addition, the fiber pullout and the delamination also exist at
the inter-laminates occasionally, depending on the drilling pa-
rameters and the cutting capability of the tools.
In addition, according to the evaluation methodology of 3D
level, an example of typical 3D graphic response of the holes
quality for the Sample 7 from Table 8 was described in Fig. 8.
From Fig. 8, the blue lines represent the nominal diameter of
the hole and the red lines represent the maximum diameter of
the delamination. Moreover, it is clear that there are altogether
16 layers and each layer has its own burrs and delamination.
Figure 9 shows the average surface roughness (Ra) along
the A area of the hole wall from Fig. 8, and several points of
each layer were selected out to make an average measurement.
The more value of the surface roughness (Ra) can be measured
at the entrance and the exit of the hole, because of some most-
ly vibrations of the tools and the composite laminates. When
drilling the composites firstly, the higher rotation speed of the
machine spindle could cause the vibration of the drills that
could deteriorate the surface roughness at the entrance. With
Point angle/(°) Coating thickness/(mm) Diameter/ (mm)
140 0 5
140 0.02 ~ 0.03 5
140 0.05 5
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2017) 93:2433–2445 2441

Table 8 The result comparison of the experiment and the comprehensive evaluation
Sample 1 2 3 4 5
Ranking 10 8 6 7 9
Fd 1.60 1.48 1.39 1.40 1.50

C-scanning
image

Exit image

Sample 6 7 8 9 10
Ranking 3 2 4 5 1
Fd 1.24 1.20 1.30 1.36 1.10

C-scanning
image

Exit image

The white zones in the ultrasonic scanning images stand for the defects such as delamination, tear, and burrs

the increase of the cutting depth, entering the stable phase of roughness could be generated at this stage such as the 9th layer
the drilling, the constraint of the surrounding materials could from Fig. 9. Near the exit, the support of the uncut thickness of
decrease the vibration of the drills. Therefore, a better surface the composite was intensely eliminated; in turn, the vibration

Table 9 SEM micrographs of typical defects on the holes

3600 r/min
5 mm/min
LJ
Surface morphology Magnified image of the Fiber pullouts at the hole
drill entrance surface

2400 r/min
5 mm/min
YZ
Surface morphology Delamination and burrs at Delamination at hole wall
the drill exit
2442 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2017) 93:2433–2445

Fig. 8 The 3D schematic diagram

of the composite laminates resulted in a high Ra value at the

exit layer.
Figure 10 shows the top view (B direction) of the 3D graph-
ic model marked in Fig. 8, and the nominal diameter of the
hole (Dnom) and the maximum diameter of delamination of the
3rd layer, the 9th layer and the exit (D3rd, D9th, Dexit) are
depicted in Fig. 10 in the form of concentric circles. The
images of the three typical layers indeed present that the en-
trance and the exit of the hole where the delamination defect is
prominent. These delamination circumstances were due to the
fact that the peel-up of the fiber at the entrance and the pullout
of the fiber at the exit during the drilling process.
Figure 11 exhibits the magnification of the C area from
Fig. 8, the combination of schematic diagrams, and the SEM
image of the burrs at the exit and 6th layers. The rough circle
and the shadow area in the schematic diagram represent the
burrs actually existed in each layer and that circumstance
Fig. 10 The delamination of the typical layers
indeed conform to uncut fibers in the SEM image. Further,
due to the fiber-bending caused by the pullout function, the
burrs have not been cut off completely; inversely, the case of
the fiber-bending at internal layers was minor. As a result, the
burrs at the exit layer are more dominant than the 6th layer, as
it can be seen from the SEM image. Consequently, according
to the example, all of the experiment samples can be analyzed
and contrasted using the analytical method of 3D level.
3.2 Experimental data analysis
The variation curve of the thrust force of various schemes
along with time was described in Fig. 12. The changing ten-
dencies of the thrust force are considered to be roughly con-
sistent through the comparison of 10 schemes. The high spin-
dle speed and feed rate can improve the efficiency of drilling;

9th layer

Exit layer

Surface roughness A
Fig. 9 The surface roughness along with the layers Fig. 11 The burrs on the typical layers
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2017) 93:2433–2445
Fig. 12 The relationship of thrust
force of various schemes and time
however, they can influence the thrust force jointly at the same
time, which will affect the holes quality greatly. It is clear that
the sample 1 has the maximum thrust force under the associa-
tive influence of the drilling parameters, and the damage is
also in accordance with the ranking from Table 8. Through the
contrast in the samples 2, 4, and 5, at the circumstance of a
higher spindle speed, the feed rate has a powerfully effect on
the thrust force; similarly, the effect of the feed rate on the
thrust force will be minor when there is a lower spindle speed.
In addition, typical representations of the schemes reveal that
the thrust force is certainly an indicator of the drilling quality,
not the only one. For example, from the Table 8, it shows that
the sample 10 is the optimal scheme; however, the minimum
thrust force is investigated in the sample 7. The differences of
the samples 7 and 10 were stacking sequence, support, and
Fig. 13 The relationship of thrust
force and influence factors
2443
pilot hole, of which the stacking sequence and the support
contribute a higher thrust force and the pilot hole offers a
lower thrust force.
The relationship between the thrust force and the spindle
speed, the feed rate, the tool material and the stacking se-
quence were derived from the experimental data which was
described in Fig. 13. From the samples 1, 2, and 3 (Fig. 13a), it
can be seen that thrust force increase gradually with the aug-
mentation of the feed rate at the same spindle speed, and the
bigger the thrust force, the more the drilling defects will be.
Through the contrast in the samples 3, 4, and 5 (Fig. 13b),
when the spindle speed decreases, the thrust force will in-
crease along with the increment of cutting parameters per
revolution at the same feed rate. For the samples 3, 6, and 7
(Fig. 13c), the thrust force is lower because of the refining
2444
effect of the coating that can make the composite materials cut
off easier. The comparison of samples 3, 8, and 9 (Fig. 13d),
reveals that more thrust force will be generated when drilling
the composite materials with the stacking sequences of [0°/0°/
0°/45°/0°/0°/−45°/0°]2s and [±45°]8s, but the drilling qualities
are better than the unidirectional laminates according to
Table 8. In consequence, it means that the mechanical prop-
erty of laminates enhances enormously and the drilling quality
will be much better, when the multi-angle laminate is chosen
reasonably.
4 Conclusions
The effect of different factors on the drilling quality of
CFRP was studied extensively by using the new approach
based on comprehensive evaluation of 3D level. Firstly,
the several relatively important drilling parameters (the
spindle speed, the feed rate, the tool material, and the
stacking sequence) were selected out to conduct the fitting
operation. The emphasis of this article is to confirm the
fitting functions and the weight coefficient of various dril-
ling factors and to get the optimal drilling program.
Through the fitting analysis, the actual influences of four
drilling parameters on the three different evaluation sub-
factors (the delamination, surface roughness, and burrs)
were verified. More importantly, the optimal drilling pro-
gram was selected out using the comprehensive evalua-
tion by synthetic operation, and it could reduce the task
load; thus, an efficient optimization standard of the dril-
ling program and a reasonable assessment criterion of the
drilling quality were established. This approach allowed
for the extraction of vital parameters affecting the drilling
quality mostly with a minimum amount of experiments.
In order to verify the validity of the comprehensive
evaluation mathematical model, the experiments were
conducted, and the result of drilling experiments was
found to be in a good agreement with the comprehensive
evaluation by using the ultrasonic inspection and SEM.
Moreover, the drilling results of schematic diagrams and
images were analyzed in accord with the practical situa-
tion. The thrust force, when drilling, was significantly
affected by drilling parameters on the basis of analyzing
experimental data. Combining the experimental result, the
thrust force was verified as one of main factors responsi-
ble for the drilling defects.
Clearly, the evaluation and optimization method on the
drilling quality based on comprehensive evaluation of 3D lev-
el demonstrated a good match with the experimental result;
ultimately, a kind of criterion of the hole quality evaluation
and drilling program optimization with the purpose of indus-
trial application was established.
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2017) 93:2433–2445
Acknowledgements We would like to show our appreciation to
Shenyang Aerospace University, Key Laboratory of Fundamental
Science for National Defense of Aeronautical Digital Manufacturing
Process and Liaoning Key Laboratory of Advanced Polymer Matrix
Composites Manufacturing Technology for supporting the research
activity.
Compliance with ethical standards
Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of
interest.
Funding This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China under Grant No. 51303107 and the basic scientific
research of National Defense during the twelfth five-year plan period
under Grant No. A352*******.
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