An Experimental Comprehensive Analysis of Drilling Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic Tubes and Comparison With Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic Plate

Today, carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) composites, which are the main areas of use such as aerospace and automotive, can be produced by different methods. Especially in the production of tubular composites, filament winding and roll wrapping methods are used generally, while vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding method or vacuum bagging method comes to the fore in the production of composite plates. These materials produced by different methods may exhibit different behavior in terms of machinability. In this study, the drilling machinability characteristics of CFRP tubes produced by filament winding and roll wrapping methods were investigated and compared with the CFRP plate produced with vacuum bagging and the results were presented comparatively. Experimental results showed that the composite plate generates more force and damage when drilled compared to the tubes, so its machinability is more difficult. Higher thrust force and damage occur in filament wound tube compared to roll wrapped tube. In addition, although the thrust force does not increase with the use of support in composite tubes, a significant improvement in drilling-induced delamination damage behavior is obtained. Compared to the tubes, a better borehole surface quality is obtained in the plate, while more dust chip formation is observed.