Ultrafast Feed Drilling of Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Thermoplastics

Carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastics (CFRTP) are just beginning to be utilized for various applications such as aerospace, automobiles, and sporting goods in place of CFRPs, and the demand for through-hole drilling of CFRTPs is increasing. In this study, the machinability in drilling of CFRTPs under various conditions was experimentally analyzed in terms of the material properties, and a feasibility study of ultrafast feed drilling was conducted. The results showed that delamination at the outlet surface can be significantly suppressed during high rotational drilling when the feed rate is set to more than 3000 mm/min. By providing appropriate drilling conditions to prevent polymers in CFRTPs from softening, ultra-fast drilling of CFRTPs was successfully achieved under dry conditions.