Cutting forces in ultrasonically assisted drilling of carbon fibre-reinforced plastics

Ultrasonically assisted drilling (UAD) is a non-traditional hybrid machining process, which combines features of conventional drilling and vibratory machining techniques to obtain remarkable improvements in machinability of advanced materials. The experiments are conducted on commercially available samples of a carbon fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) at a feed rate of 16 mm/min. In this study, a thrust force reduction in excess of 60% is observed in UAD when compared to conventional drilling (CD). Lower delamination was observed when compared to CD techniques. Optical microscopy revealed that the material is removed as a continuous chip in UAD whereas in case of CD we observe powdered dust. Light and scanning electron microscopy of CFRP chips obtained in drilling elucidate fundamental differences in the underlying machining processes in UAD of CFRP.