Cryogenic Shear Cutting of Fiber Reinforced Plastics (FRP)

The cutting of fiber reinforced plastics (FRP) components is a challenging process due to such problems as fiber tear, delamination and smearing effects in the cut zone caused by the different behavior of the matrix material and the fibres. The proposed cryogenic cutting method suitable for mass production of FRP parts shall optimize the performance in production and the component quality. In this paper a proposal regarding a new process concept is made. A first realization of this low temperature assisted shear cutting method is presented and the experimental results are discussed regarding the observed effects.