Comparison of surface roughness quality obtained by high speed CNC trimming and high speed robotic trimming for CFRP laminate

• The effect of cutting parameters on the surface roughness of CFRP is observed.
• A comparison is made between robotic trimming and CNC trimming processes.
• Both processes produce almost the same roughness quality once trajectory deviation removed.
• The −45 ply orientation clearly represents the worst case for both processes.
• High relationship was observed between roughness and ply orientation for both processes.

This paper proposes an experimental approach for evaluating the surface roughness of the CFRP parts produced by high speed CNC trimming and high speed robotic trimming under various cutting conditions. A comparison is made between the surface roughnesses obtained by the two processes. The results obtained show that, the measured profiles obtained from high speed robotic trimming are dominated by a large trajectory deviation, as compared to machine tool trimming results. After the trajectory deviation effect is discounted, the results show that for the +45° ply orientation, the surface quality obtained through high speed robotic trimming is similar to what is obtained with the CNC machine. Furthermore, a significant relationship was observed between the surface quality and the ply orientation, whatever the machining process and the cutting conditions employed. The −45° ply orientation represents the worst case in terms of surface roughness, whatever the machining process. It is 4 times higher compared with that of +45° ply orientations,The results also show that the effect of cutting conditions on surface quality is significant for both machining processes tested.