Machining optimisation in carbon bre reinforced composite materials

J.R. Ferreira
a,*
, N.L. Coppini
1,b
, G.W.A. Miranda
2,c
a
EFEI-Escola Federal de Engenharia de Itajuba, Departamento de Produc,ao, Itajuba-MG, Brazil
b
UNICAMP-Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Departamento de Enga. de Fabricac,ao, Campinas-SP, Brazil
c
UNITAL-Universidade de Taubate, Departamento de Enga. Mecanica, Taubate-SP, Brazil
Abstract
By virtue of their characteristics, the applications of composite materials based on carbon bre reinforced plastic (CFRP) have been
increasing considerably. Thus new manufacturing process and production techniques must be developed to ensure high precision and good
surface quality of the components. As a result of this manufacturing scenario, it is necessary to study the machining process. This work
reports practical experiments in turning, to study the performance of different tool materials such as ceramics, cemented carbide, cubic
boron nitride (CBN), and diamond (PCD). The results show that only diamond tools are suitable for use in nish turning. An optimisation
methodology was used in rough machining to determine the best cutting conditions. The tests were carried out with cemented carbide tool
at various cutting speeds. In the optimisation methodology were used the cutting length as the tool replacement criterion and some
parameters were monitored such as the feed and cutting forces that can used be used as a safety system. Finally, it is concluded that the
optimisation of the cutting conditions is extremely important in the selection of the tools and cutting conditions to be used in the CFRP
manufacturing process. # 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.
Keywords: CFRP composite; Machining; Optimisation
1. Introduction
The use of composite materials based on carbon bre
reinforced plastics (CFRP) has grown considerably in recent
years, especially in the aeronautic, aerospace, sporting and
automotive industries. They are well suited for design
applications in which the use of their high stiffness and
strength, low weight, and good corrosive properties is
needed [1]. The research activities on bre reinforced
plastics (FRP) composites are currently going through a
transition phase. Thus far, material properties and theore-
tical mechanics have been the dominant research areas in
this eld. With increasing applications, economical techni-
ques of production are very important to achieve fully
automated large-scale manufacturing cycles. An important
aspect of production technology is machining [2].
Although FRP composites are usually moulded, for
obtaining close ts and tolerances and also achieving
near-net shape, certain amount of machining has to be
carried out. Due to their anisotropy, and non-homogeneity,
FRP composites pose considerable problems in machining:
bre pull-out, delamination, burning, etc. There is a big
difference between the machining of conventional metals
and their alloys and that of composite materials [2,3].
Further, each composite differs in its machining behaviour
since its physical and mechanical properties depend largely
on the type of bre, the bre content, the bre orientation
and variabilities in the matrix material. Whilst there is a
considerable amount of literature on the several aspects of
the machining of metals, only a limited number of paper
exists on the machining of FRP composites [13].
CFRP composite material is extremely abrasive when
machined. Thus the selection of the cutting tool and the
cutting conditions is very important in the machining pro-
cess of composite materials. The machining characteristics
of CFRP change for each workpiece due to the inuence of
their fabrication methods. Thus the material behaviour in the
machining process is an important step for components
fabrication. Carbon bre machining can be achieved with
several conventional tools, however, the abrasivity of the
material damages the surface cutting quality and tool
life [13].
Journal of Materials Processing Technology 9293 (1999) 135140
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +55-356291150; fax: +55-356291148
E-mail addresses: jorofe@iem.efei.br (J.R. Ferreira);
coppini@fem.unicamp.br (N.L. Coppini); arenas@fem.unicamp.br
(G.W.A. Miranda)
1
Tel.: +19-239-7995; fax: +19-239-3722
2
Tel.: +12-232-6803; fax: +19-239-3722
0924-0136/99/$ see front matter # 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.
PII: S0 9 2 4 - 0 1 3 6 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 2 2 1 - 6
This work therefore presents some turning experiments
carried out on CFRP composite to evaluate tool life under
various cutting conditions. During the experiments, the tool
wear was measured for several tool materials: cemented
carbide uncoated and coated, ceramics, cubic boron nitride
(CBN) and polycrystalline diamond (PCD). The workpiece
surface roughness and machining forces were measured
also. It is shown that the tool wear inuences the machining
forces and surface roughness. This work uses a methodology
for obtaining the optimised cutting speed for CFRP com-
posite turning and makes a comparison with metal machin-
ing. The authors applied sensors of machining forces for
monitoring the tool wear and to be used as safety system
(SSY) in the optimisation process.
2. Optimisation methodology
2.1. Cutting speed optimisation
Several works [4,5] about the optimisation of cutting
condition were developed by the UNICAMP Research
Group. The main topics are summarised below. Based on
the Taylor equation, it is possible to nd that:
x = 1
log[Lc
i
aLc
i1
[
log[Vc
i1
aVc
i
[
Y (1)
K = Lc
i
(Vc
i
)
x1
Y (2)
where x and K are the Taylor equation coefcients; Lc the
cutting length per tool edge life; Vc the cutting speed (held
constant during machining evolution); and i is the rst
cutting condition adopted.
To apply the method, a rst cutting speed, Vc
i
, must be
selected following traditional methodologies, for example
by searching the information in tool manufacture catalo-
gues. The same procedure must be applied for a second
cutting speed value, Vc
i1
, adopted to be ~20% different
from the rst. For best cutting speed selection, it is sufcient
to use as a reliable reference, only the right-side of the
Maximum Efciency Interval, i.e. the Maximum Production
Cutting Speed, V
mxp
, (Eq. (3)) determined using the Taylor
coefcient as above. Following this suggestion, it is not
necessary to determine the left side of the mentioned inter-
val, which is dened by the Minimum Cost Speed.
V
mxp
=

K
(x 1)t
ft
s
Y (3)
where t
ft
is the tool replacement time.
Coppini and Batocchio [6] developed an expert machin-
ing system (EMS) specically designed to select the best
cutting speed during machining shop oor activity. All of the
machining parameters constraints were considered in the
expert system. Thus to calculate V
mxp
and to select the best
cutting speed to be used, the EMS rst checks the limits in
terms of feed force, cutting force, main engine power and
spindle rotation. Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the
EMS architecture.
The EMS was conceived in a semi-automatic version.
This means that the EMS takes cutting conditions and all the
parameters from a data base and all the rules from data
knowledge, and the inference engine provide calculation of
V
mxp
and uses it as a reference to select the best cutting speed
to be used. However, the user must impute through the user
interface the following data: Lc, the cutting length machined
for each cutting speed; and t
ft
, the tool replacement time.
The machine tool operator must provide: the changes of
cutting speed in the CNC program, whenever the EMS
informs him/her of a new value of this parameter; the
changes of machined parts after a complete machined cycle;
and the changes of tools, the tool replacement criterion
always being provided. In all these previous works sum-
marised above, the proposed methods and the EMS were
validated in actual applications.
2.2. Proposition for the tool edge replacement criterion
The starting point will be the available information for
cutting parameters in tool manufacture catalogues for the
conventional machining of steel. Otherwise, in the case of
the machining of composite materials, it is not possible to
nd cutting data. Therefore the user's own cutting process
experience must be used for initial test. According to Fig. 2,
the cutting speed Vc
i
will be the basis for the cutting length
machined determination. For this, the cutting process must
be carried out until reaching the safety system (SSY) with
the corresponding cutting length L
i
machined. Lc
i
=L
i
L
will be the length that is the rst step of the proposed
methodology, where L is a cutting length xed as a protec-
tion value. After that, it is possible to adopt Vc
i1
=1.2 Vc
i
, to
have a new cutting-speed value. For this new cutting-speed
value it is possible to obtain a new L
i1
cutting length.
Lc
i1
=L
i1
L will be the used in the second step of the
proposed methodology. It is possible with the results Lc
i
and
Lc
i1
to utilise the expert machining system (EMS) for the
calculation of the optimised cutting speed Vc
ot
, and the
optimised cutting length Lc
ot
, that will be used as tool edge
replacement criterion [6].
In the case of a composite material it is common to present
the composition variations of bre/resin between one or
Fig. 1. Expert machining system (EMS) architecture [6].
136 J.R. Ferreira et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 9293 (1999) 135140
other piece. As a result, it is possible that the SSY becomes
active. During practical events, if the average number of
SSYactivations becomes greater than the determined value,
a new cycle of optimisation is necessary in the same way as
described above.
3. Experimental
3.1. Materials
The composition of the CFRP composite tested is: density
1.41.5 g/cm
3
, Carbon Fibre 3540% in mass, Phenolic
Resin 6065%. The components were pressed for applica-
tions in the rocket exit cones of satellite a launchers.
3.2. Tool materials
The tests were carried out with several tool materials:
Cemented carbide ISO K10 uncoated and TiC, Al
2
O
3
coated; ISO P20 TiC and TiN coated; pure ceramics
(Al
2
O
3
ZrO
2
); mixed ceramics (Al
2
O
3
TiC); cubic boron
nitride (CBN); and diamond (PCD). The geometry used was
ISO SNUN 120408.
3.3. Equipment
Experiments were conducted in a CNC lathe of 30 HP
power. The machining forces were measured by a dynam-
ometer. Tool wear was evaluated using conventional equip-
ment, and a vacuum cleaner was used to remove the chip
from the environment.
3.4. Cutting conditions
In the rst experiments the following cutting conditions
were used: cutting speed 310 m/min; feed f=0.12 mm/rev;
depth of cut (approx.) 1.0 mm. This trial shows the perfor-
mance of the tool materials in the machining of composite
materials. In a second experiment the surface roughness in
the nish operation was observed, where PCD tools with
positive and negative geometry were used. The cutting
parameters were: cutting speed 200 m/min; depth of cut
of 1 mm; and feed rates of 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2, and 0.25 mm/
rev.
Finally, tests were carried out using uncoated cemented
carbide tools ISO K10 for optimisation methodology appli-
cation. Several cutting speeds were used: 50, 65, 80, 100,
120, 150, 200, 250, and 310 m/min; for the same feed
(0.12 mm/rev) and depth of cut (1 mm). These variations
were used to verify their inuence on carbide tool wear and
consequently on tool life.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Cutting tools in rough turning
In Fig. 3 is shown how the ank wear varies with the
cutting length. For all tools, except PCD, a very high tool
wear rate was observed. Cubic boron nitride (CBN) pre-
sented a better behaviour compared with ceramics and
cemented carbides. On the other hand, polycrystalline dia-
mond (PCD) was shown to be better than all of the other
tools. For some carbide and ceramics tools, the increasing
rate of feed force was remarkable. For PCD the feed force
remained almost constant. Thus the variation of feed force in
Fig. 7 could be explained by the increase of the ank wear
with cutting length, and the absence of tool crater wear
during composite machining. In Fig. 4 is shown a photo-
graph of carbide tool wear, where it can be observed that
high ank wear occurred in the turning of CFRP composite.
4.2. Finish operation
The surface roughness for carbon bre-phenolic compo-
site materials increased as the feed increased (Fig. 5).
Otherwise, the results show that the surface roughness is
not very dependent on the cutting speed. Better results were
found for the positive geometry PCD tool with the following
cutting conditions: Vc=200 m/min; f=0.05 mm/rev; depth
of cut 1 mm.
In nish turning operations, only the PCDtool can be used
to ensure a good surface quality. Other tool materials pre-
sented a poor performance. The composite material, in this
case, presents bre pull-out and crater formation in the resin.
Because of this, the more wear resistant is the tool, the better
is its behaviour related to surface roughness.
The results presented in Fig. 5 show that the positive
geometry PCD tool presents a better roughness than the
negative PCD tool. However, the positive geometry tool is
more fragile and presents a larger wear. It is also possible to
observe the decreasing of the inuence of the tool geometry
when the value of feed increases.
Fig. 2. Diagram of the proposed methodology.
J.R. Ferreira et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 9293 (1999) 135140 137
For all tool materials, the average surface roughness, Ra,
varies quite linearly with the cutting length. This could be
explained by the fact that abrasion is the main tool wear
mechanism. The polished ank surface and the absence of
crater wear shown in Fig. 4 indicated that the active wear
mechanism is based mainly on the high abrasivity of the
CFRP composite.
4.3. Optimisation of the cutting conditions
For optimisation methodology validation, several tests
were carried out on carbon bre-phenolic composite mate-
rial. Compared to conventional machining metals, this kind
of exotic material does not has machining data available in
tools manufacturers' catalogues. For this reason, the opti-
misation methodology application is indispensable [7].
Fig. 6 shows the uncoated carbide tool wear, VB, growth
in relation to the cutting length, for several cutting speeds.
The uncoated carbide was utilised because it presents higher
wear than the other tool materials and consequently lower
life, so make easier the laboratory tests.
The results in Fig. 6 show that there exists a large
inuence of the cutting speed on cemented carbide tool
Fig. 3. Tool flank wear vs. cutting length.
Fig. 4. Carbide (K10) tool flank wear; Vc=310 m/min, f=0.12 mm/rev,
ap=1 mm.
Fig. 5. Surface roughness vs. feed rate.
138 J.R. Ferreira et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 9293 (1999) 135140
wear. This inuence is more signicant when the cutting
speed is greater than 150 m/min.
Taking the cutting speed intervals and respective cutting
length with VB=0.9 mm (Fig. 6), it is possible to apply the
optimisation methodology described above. For each cutting
speed interval the maximum production cutting speed, V
mxp
,
was determined after the determination of the Taylor equa-
tion coefcients. All of these data can be seen in Table 1.
This procedure was adopted until the V
mxp
validation, i.e.,
until it fell within the cutting speed interval used for its
calculations. Following the optimisation methodology [5],
the V
mxp
determined in the (200, 250 m/min) cutting speed
Fig. 6. Tool flank wear vs. cutting length.
Table 1
Optimisation methodology results
Vc
i
(m/min) Vc
i1
(m/min) Lc
i
(m) Lc
i1
(m) x K V
mxp
(m/min)
50 65 1800 1800 1.00 1.8010
3

65 80 1800 1733 1.18 3.8210

3
3290
80 100 1733 1400 1.96 1.1610
5
319
100 120 1400 1180 1.94 1.0610
5
326
120 150 1180 933 2.05 1.7910
5
293
150 200 933 867 1.25 3.2610
3
1418
200 250 867 553 3.01 3.6610
7
Vc
ot
=225
250 310 553 387 2.66 5.2910
6
239
Fig. 7. Validation tests; tool: cemented carbide (K10); Vc
ot
=225 m/min; Lc
ot
=655 m.
J.R. Ferreira et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 9293 (1999) 135140 139
interval was found to be the ``optimised cutting speed'',
Vc
ot
=225 m/min.
Despite limited literature available, the value of Vc
ot
as
determined, was found to be at least twice larger than the
sparse values of practical cutting speed found in the litera-
ture.
4.4. Validation tests
To ensure that Vc
ot
=225 m/min was indeed the optimised
cutting speed, some tests were carried out, as shown in
Fig. 7. For this kind of composite material it was veried
that the cutting force value was very low in relation to the
feed force. The machining of CFRP composites mostly
involves a perfect rupturing of the carbon bre with very
little deformation [8]. The CFRP chip was found to be a
powder.
It was observed also that there is a strong relationship
between tool wear and feed force. The feed force values
increase signicantly in relation to tool wear, and it achieved
about ve times the original value. The good repeatability
observed in the tests gave condence that the methodology
is reliable.
5. Conclusions
Based on the results above, the following can be con-
cluded:
1. The cutting speed has a large inuence on carbide tool
wear/life.
2. The tool wear has a strong influence on feed force and
surface roughness.
3. The CFRP composite machining tests showed a good
repeatability.
4. The optimisation methodology approach is possible for
carbide tools applications. For PCD tool applications,
previous cost analysis must be made.
5. For finishing operations, only diamond tools can ensure a
surface roughness of about 2.5 mm Ra.
6. There is a strong influence of the matrix content, fibre
orientation and fibre type on the machinability of CFRP
composite.
7. The value of Vc
ot
=225 m/min was found to be greater
than the existing literature data.
References
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[3] K.S. Kim et al., Machinability of carbon fibreepoxy composite
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[5] N.L. Coppini, R.C. Vilella, Cutting conditions optimisation in
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