Published Paper Details:

Composite materials are been used for numerous components and structures in aerospace industry. Many of these components require machining during their fabrication. Drilling of composite materials is very difficult to carry out due to damage being induced into the component in the form of delamination, fiber pullout, and local cracks. Further, rapid wear development in the cutting tool also takes place during drilling of composite materials. Conventional machining processes such as turning, drilling or milling can be applied to composite materials, provided proper tool design and operating conditions are adopted. Kevlar Aramid Fiber Reinforced Plastics (K-1226) is widely used in the industry due to its chemical stability at high temperature and resistance to wear. Studies show that conventional cutting of this laminates are extremely difficult due to the frictional force developed via thermal expansion of substrate material which has restricted the use of Kevlar component. In this regard, an attempt has been made to describe the effective method for drilling K-1226 material using solid carbide step drill K-34 to drill a hole of 9mm diameter for varying thickness. The drilled Laminates are examined using C-Scan Analysis. From the analysis it is observed that for lower thickness K1226 laminate with higher feed rate, spindle speed and cutting speed no delamination occurred. Hence, it is be concluded that the solid carbide step drill K34 was found suitable for machining of Kevlar K1226 laminates of 8,10 and 12mm thickness.