The effect of pilot hole on delamination when core drill drilling composite materials

Removal of chips is a serious problem when core drill drilling polymer composites. As the chip is formed it moves to the inner hole of core drill. A hole is pre-drilled to eliminate the thrust caused by the removal chip, thus the threat for delamination is significantly reduced. The diameter of the pre-drilled hole is set equal to the inner hole of core drill. A smaller diameter of pilot hole cannot solve the problem of removal chips, while a larger one tends to cause undesired delamination during pre-drilling. Although valuable efforts have been made for the analysis of drilling-induced delamination, little has been reported on the effect of pilot hole diameter on delamination for core drills. The design of drill tools can be improved using obtained results.     

Tool life improvement by peck drilling and thrust force monitoring during deep-micro-hole drilling of steel

An unstable drilling process results from the insufficient supply of cutting fluid and bad chip removal as machining depth increases. These causes of unstable drilling lead to serious problems in micro-drilling. All drills were broken while drilling the first hole in the micro-deep-hole drilling of steel with an aspect ratio over 10, regardless of the cutting conditions. Peck drilling, which utilizes an intermittent feed, is widely used in drilling deep holes. Generally, the one-step feed-length (OSFL) of peck drilling is one and a half times longer than the drill diameter in conventional drilling. An OSFL between one half and twice the micro-drill diameter was used by some workers for micro-drilling. However, this range of OSFL was an arbitrary decision. This paper proposes the peck drilling method using thrust force signal monitoring. The monitoring parameters for peck drilling (MPPDs) are introduced through the analysis of thrust force in both the time and frequency domain. The monitoring system was embodied using LabVIEW. Through this monitoring system, the proper OSFL for stable machining in the deep-micro-hole drilling of steel was determined to be about a tenth of the tool diameter.     

Effect of deviation on delamination by saw drill

Various cutting techniques are available to drill holes, but drilling is the most common way in secondary machining of composite materials owing to the need for structure joining. Twist drills are widely used in the industry to produce holes rapidly and economically. Since the twist drill has a chisel edge, increasing the length of a chisel edge will result in an increase in the thrust force generated. Whereas, a saw drill has no chisel edge; it utilizes the peripheral distribution of the thrust force for drilling. As a result, the saw drill can achieve better a machining quality in drilling composite laminates than twist drill. The deviation of cutting edge that occurs in saw drill would result in an increase of thrust force during drilling, causing delamination damage when drilling composite materials in particular. A comprehensive model concerning delamination induced by the thrust force of a deviation saw drill during drilling composite materials has been established in the present study. For a deviation saw drill, the critical thrust force that triggers delamination increases with increasing β. A lower feed rate has to be used with an increasing deviation saw drill in order to prevent delamination damage. The results agree with real industrial experience. A guide for avoiding the drill deviation during drill regrinding or drill wear has been proved analytically by the proposed model, especially when the deviation ratio (β) affects the critical thrust force. This approach can be extended to examine similar deviation effects of various drills.     

Design characteristics of new types of drill and evaluation of their performance drilling cast iron—II. Drills with three major cutting edges

This paper describes the performance characteristics of a new type of carbide head twist drill with four flutes, four major cutting edges, and one chisel edge. This drill shows great potential for significantly improving drilling accuracy and productivity. The drill produces holes that are as good as reamed holes. The body and point geometries and the cutting characteristics of the four-flute drill are described, along with the accuracies of hole location, angularity, size and roundness. Cutting forces, drill wear and chip morphology during cast iron drilling are also discussed. The four-flute drill deflects and vibrates much less than two-flute drills, especially in interrupted cutting cases. A patent is pending for this drill.     

The performance of hydrogenated and non-hydrogenated diamond-like carbon tool coatings during the dry drilling of 319 Al

Aluminium alloys, though widely used in the automotive industry, are difficult to machine, particularly by drilling and tapping without the use of metal removal fluids, because of aluminium's strong tendency to adhere to the cutting tool. Tribological tests have revealed that carbon-based tool coatings, such as diamond-like carbon (DLC), promise an improved performance due to their low friction and adhesion. However, the tribological performance of DLC coatings depends on both their hydrogen content and the testing environments. Hence the experimental approach taken in this study was designed to understand the cutting performance of hydrogenated DLC (H-DLC) and non-hydrogenated DLC (NH-DLC) tool coatings during the dry drilling of a 319 Al (Al–6%Si) alloy. An experimental drilling station was built to measure torque and thrust force changes using a cutting speed of 2500 rpm and a feed rate of 0.25 mm/rev. The cutting performance was assessed by measuring the torques and thrust forces generated during the drilling of the first 150 holes or by drill failure—depending on which occurred first. The results indicated that superior cutting performance was achieved, in both torque and thrust force responses, using DLC-coated drills rather than uncoated high-speed steel (HSS) drills. The uncoated HSS drills failed after drilling only 49 holes as a result of excessive aluminium adhesion. At least 150 holes could be drilled using the DLC-coated drills, and both the torque and thrust forces generated during drilling were lower than those with uncoated HSS drills. In addition, a smaller proportion of holes exhibited abrupt increases in torque (at the end of the drilling cycle) during drilling with the DLC-coated drills. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) investigations showed that the H-DLC drill flutes displayed minimal aluminium clogging—resulting in lower torque. H-DLC coating also diminished metal transfer and buildup edge formation on the drill's flank face and cutting edge. Thus, torque and thrust force measurements, supported by metallographic data, indicated that H-DLC-coated drills provided better dry drilling performance than NH-DLC.     

Experimental analysis of drilling fiber reinforced composites

In comparison with metals, long-fiber reinforced composites have a layered structure, with different properties throughout their thickness. When drilling such structures, internal defects like delamination occur, caused by the drilling loads and their uneven distribution among the plies. The current experimental analysis is focused towards determining the cutting loads distribution (axial and tangential) along the work-piece thickness and tool radius by analyzing the thrust and torque curves when drilling with 3 different drills carbon-fiber (CFRP) and glass-fiber (GFRP) reinforced composite plates. A wide range of cutting parameters is tested. The highest loads are found at the tool tip in the vicinity of the chisel edge for all cases. It is also found that the maximum load per ply varies mainly with the axial feed rate and tool geometry, while the spindle speed has little or no influence. The analysis is useful for selecting the cutting parameters for delamination free drilling and also for conducting drill geometry optimizations.     

Experimental studies of step drills and establishment of empirical equations for the drilling process

Various sizes of step drills were manufactured by a CNC grinder machine and used in the drilling process with different speeds and feed rates to produce single step holes in S1214 free machining steel. The performance of step drills was compared with that of conventional twist drills in the drilling of the free machining steel for the same task. The influences of drill size, feed rate and cutting speed on the performance of step drills were studied. Experimental results show that for better cutting performance, the small diameter should not be less than 60% of the large diameter. Also, most of the changes in the characteristics of the thrust force were influenced by the smaller drill of the step drill. On the other hand, the small diameter part of the step drill only contributed about 30% of the torque. From the experimental results, empirical equations for drilling thrust force and torque have been established for step drills.     

Effects of exit back-up on delamination in drilling composite materials using a saw drill and a core drill

Machining of composites has caught greater attention in manufacturing of structural parts in aerospace, automobile and sporting goods. Composite materials have advantageous features in strength and stiffness coupled with lightweight compared to the conventional metallic materials. Amongst all machining operations, drilling is the most commonly applied method for generating holes for riveting and fastening the structural assembly. Delamination is one of the serious concerns in drilling holes in composite materials at the bottom surface of the workpiece (drill exit). Quite a few references of the drilling of fiber-reinforced plastics report that the quality of cut is strongly dependent on drilling parameter as well as the drill geometry. Saw drills and core drills produce less delamination than twist drills by distributing the drilling thrust toward the hole periphery. Delamination can be effectively reduced or eliminated by slowing down the feed rate when approaching the exit and by using back-up plates to support and counteract the deflection of the composite laminate leading to exit side delaminations. The use of the back-up does reduce the delamination in practice, which its effects have not been well explained in analytical fashion. This paper predicts the effects of backup plate on delamination in drilling composite materials using saw drill and core drill. The critical drilling thrust force at the onset of delamination is calculated and compared with that without backup. The well known advantage of industrial use of backup can be understood fundamentally by the fact that the threshold thrust force at the onset of delamination is increased making the delamination less induced.     

High-throughput drilling of titanium alloys

Experiments of high-throughput drilling of Ti–6Al–4V at 183 m/min cutting speed and 156 mm³/s material removal rate (MRR) using a 4 mm diameter WC–Co spiral point drill were conducted. The tool material and geometry and drilling process parameters, including cutting speed, feed, and fluid supply, were studied to evaluate the effect on drill life, thrust force, torque, energy, and burr formation. The tool wear mechanism, hole surface roughness, and chip light emission and morphology for high-throughput drilling were investigated. Supplying the cutting fluid via through-the-drill holes has proven to be a critical factor for drill life, which can be increased by 10 times compared to that of dry drilling at 183 m/min cutting speed and 0.051 mm/rev feed. Under the same MRR of 156 mm³/s with a doubled feed of 0.102 mm/rev (91 m/min cutting speed), over 200 holes can be drilled. The balance of cutting speed and feed is essential to achieve long drill life and good hole surface roughness. This study demonstrates that, using proper drilling process parameters, spiral point drill geometry, and fine-grained WC–Co tool material, the high-throughput drilling of Ti alloy is technically feasible.     

Generalized groove-type chip breaker effects on drilling for different drill diameters and flute shapes

This paper proposes a generalized formulation to place chip-breaker grooves on drills of varying diameters. To verify the effectiveness of this generalization the groove is placed on the drill rake face of 6.35 and 3.18 mm diameter drills of standard and parabolic flute shapes using a fabrication process utilizing electro-discharge machining (EDM). The results indicate that chip size is reduced. The robustness of the placement of the groove is assessed with experiments validating effective distance from the cutting lip and groove depth thereby facilitating drill regrinding. Experiments are also conducted to study chip clogging when the chip-breaker groove is employed on small drill diameters.     

Cutting edge rounding: An innovative tool wear criterion in drilling CFRP composite laminates

An evenly and smoothly distributed abrasion wear, observed along the entire cutting edge of an uncoated carbide drill bit in drilling CFRPs, is due to the highly abrasive nature of the carbon fibres. A very few researchers have only quoted this wear mode as being responsible for giving rise to the rounding of the cutting edge, or its bluntness. However, this wear feature has seldom been investigated, unlike the conventional flank wear in practice. This paper offers a new approach in unveiling and introducing the cutting edge rounding (CER) – a latent wear characteristic as a measure of sharpness/bluntness – of uncoated cemented carbide tools during drilling CFRP composite laminates. Four different types of drills (conventional and specialised) were tested to assess the applicability and relevance of this new wear feature. Mechanical loads (drilling thrust and torque) were recorded, and the hole entry and exit delamination were quantified. For the utilised tools, the accruing magnitude of CER was also recorded, in parallel with studying their conventional flank wear. Very appreciable correlations between the CER and the drilling loads, and also the quantitative delamination results are observed. Results reveal that this new wear type develops almost similarly for the selected tools and is practically independent of their respective conventional flank wear patterns. Moreover, a distinct, non-zero magnitude of the CER for a very fresh tool state may provide researchers with some lucid information in further studying the results during wear tests, more emphatically. The CER correlations with quantitative delamination results are noticed quite comparable to those of the conventional flank wear via statistical linear regression analyses.     

Chip thickening in deep-hole drilling

In conventional turning and milling cutting process models, chips are free of external forces after leaving the cutting area. However, in a drilling process, chip flowing is constrained by the drill flute, causing the change of chip shape and drilling forces. In this research, it is found that when drilling deep holes, the chip thickness increases as drilling progresses deeper into the workpiece. It is also found that during a deep-hole drilling process a significant part of the drilling force increase is due to the chip thickening effect. An analytical model was developed to predict the force increase caused by chip thickening. Experiments have been carried out to verify the model.     

Thrust force, torque, and tool wear in drilling the bulk metallic glass

The thrust force, torque, and tool wear in drilling of Zr-based bulk metallic glass (BMG) material are investigated. Drilling the BMG at high speed generates the chip light emission, high tool temperature, and severe tool wear. At low spindle speed, the BMG work-material builds up at the major and margin cutting edges and may break the drill. A range of feasible spindle speed and feed rate for the efficient drilling of BMG without the detrimental chip light emission and cutting edge work-material build-up has been identified in this study. Under the same drilling condition, the WC-Co tool generally requires less thrust force and about the same torque than the high-speed steel tool. The progressive wear of the major and margin cutting edges for BMG drilling is examined. Severe drill wear is associated with the bright BMG chip light emission. Without chip light emission, the drill wear is visible but not severe. This study concluded that precision holes in BMG could be generated with proper selection of tooling and process parameters.     

An analytical finite element technique for predicting thrust force and torque in drilling

An analytical finite element technique was developed for predicting the thrust force and torque in drilling with twist drills. The approach was based on representing the cutting forces along the cutting lips as a series of oblique sections. Similarly, cutting in the chisel region was treated as orthogonal cutting with different cutting speeds depending on the radial location. For each section, an Eulerian finite element model was used to simulate the cutting forces. The section forces were combined to determine the overall thrust force and drilling torque. Good agreement between the predicted and measured forces and torques was found in orthogonal and oblique cutting and in drilling tests. The drilling tests were performed on AISI 1020 for several drill diameters, spindle speeds, and feed rates. An extension of the technique for predicting drill temperatures has also been described.     

Friction drilling of austenitic stainless steel by uncoated and PVD AlCrN- and TiAlN-coated tungsten carbide tools

Friction drilling utilizes the heat generated from the friction between the tool and the thin workpiece to form a bush for fixtures such as screw threads in plastic deformation process. This process produces no chip, shortens the time required for hole-making and incurs less tool wear, thus lengthening the service life of the drill. In this study, tungsten carbide drills with and without coating were employed to make holes in AISI 304 stainless steel, which is known to have high ductility, low thermal conductivity and great hardness. TiAIN and AlCrN were coated onto the drill surface by physical vapor deposition (PVD). Performance of coated and uncoated cutting tools was examined for drillings made under different spindle speeds. Changes in relationship between drill surface temperature, tool wear and axial thrust force during machining were also explored. Experimental results reveal that lubricating effect of the coating and low thermal conductivity of AlCrN caused AlCrN-coated drill to produce the highest surface temperature but the lowest axial thrust force with the least tool wear. However, the difference in performance between coated and uncoated drills diminished with increase in number of holes drilled.     

Mechanistic models of thrust force and torque in step-drilling of Al7075-T651

In the aerospace industry, burr removal is an important and expensive part of the manufacturing process. One approach to minimizing burrs is to lower the thrust force in drilling through suitable modification of the drill geometry such as the use of step drills. This paper focuses on the modeling of thrust force and torque for step drills. A mechanistic model capturing the various material removal mechanisms, i.e. oblique cutting, orthogonal cutting, and indentation, active on different sections of the step drill is developed. Subsequently, a series of experiments is conducted to calibrate and validate the model. The validation results show that the predicted thrust and torque values are in good agreement with measured values, although the torque is slightly underestimated. The validated model was further used to investigate the effects of step drill geometry parameters on the thrust force and torque. The model predictions suggest that the thrust force increases and the torque decreases for larger secondary point angles and inner diameters.     

An Investigation of the Cutting Mechanisms of the New Point Drill

This investigation examines the cutting mechanisms and performance characteristics of the New Point Drill. The New Point Drill is a carbide tipped twist drill with a non-cutting zone at the center of the drill. The mechanics by which both the chips that form in the central core of the drill and those formed by the two cutting edges are described using SEM and conventional microscopy. Five different point geometries of carbide tipped drills (including the New Point Drill) and four geometries of HSS drills were used to drill S15C (AISI 1015) steel at a Rockwell B hardness (HRB) of 65 and S45C (AISI 1045) steel at 96 HRB and 104 HRB. The torque, thrust, spindle horsepower, and chip shape served to compare the performance characteristics of the drills.     

Spiral point drill temperature and stress in high-throughput drilling of titanium

The spatial and temporal distributions of the temperature and stress of a 9.92 mm diameter spiral point drill are studied in high-throughput drilling of Ti–6Al–4V with 384 mm³/s material removal rate (MRR). A finite element thermal model using the inverse heat transfer method is applied to find the heat partition on the tool–chip contact area and convection heat transfer coefficient of cutting fluid. The thermal model is validated by comparing experimentally measured and numerically predicted drill temperature with good agreement. Thermo-mechanical finite element analysis is applied to solve the drill stress distribution. Modeling results confirm that the supply of cutting fluid is important to reduce the temperature across the drill cutting and chisel edges. At 183 m/min peripheral cutting speed, 0.05 mm/rev feed and 10.2 mm depth of drilling, the drill peak temperature is reduced from 1210 °C in dry drilling to 651 °C with cutting fluid supplied through the drill body. Under the same MRR, 61 m/min peripheral cutting speed and 0.15 mm/rev feed, the analysis shows that the drill peak temperature is reduced to 472 °C. The temperature induced thermal stress combined with the mechanical stress caused by cutting forces is analyzed to predict the location of drill failure. Applying the modified Mohr failure criterion, the drill cutting and chisel edges are found to be prone to failure in dry and wet drilling conditions, respectively. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of drill thermal and stress modeling for drilling process parameter selection and drill design improvement.     

Ultrasonic deep hole drilling in electrolytic copper ECu 57

At present the machining of highly ductile electrolytic copper ECu 57 with gun drills is carried out at very low feed values, as the material tends to form very long and unfavourable chips. In addition, high frictional forces on the guide rails cause high torsional strain on the gun drill. This paper first reports on the results of ultrasonically assisted deep hole drilling in ECu 57 with tools of 5 mm diameter. The actuator system for exciting axial vibrations in the ultrasonic range is described and experimental results which were obtained from cutting tests are reported. Particular emphasis is put on the improvements compared with the conventional drilling technology without superimposed vibrations. The effect of different input amplitudes is investigated in detail. The performance criteria are drilling moment, surface quality, chip form as well as the surface zone. By optimising the vibration amplitude, cutting speed and feed, the machining result was improved compared with conventional machining, and at the same time the stability of the machining process was simultaneously increased.