Study on the surface quality of CFRP machined by micro-textured milling tools

Commonly known the carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) is easy to produce burr, avulsion (tear), delamination and other defects in traditional milling process. Changing the contact characteristics of tool-chip interface can be used to improve the cutting process, which may be achieved by surface texturing of the tools. Thus, two kinds of surface structures were fabricated on the rake face of the carbide double-edge milling tool: (1) linear grooves parallel to the main cutting edge (named PAM); (2) linear grooves perpendicular to the main cutting edge (named PEM). Dry cutting tests were carried out on unidirectional laminated CFRP with different fiber orientations (0°, 45°, 90° and 135°) using the two developed tools and the conventional tool (named NCM). Thesurface quality of machined workpieces was assessed in terms of the surface roughness, burr, tear phenomenon and the way of fiber breakage. Results show that the surface quality of CFRP machined by the micro-textured milling tools is improved over that by the conventional one. Meanwhile, the types of surface texture and fiber laying have a profound effect on the surface quality of machined part. In this experiments, the linear grooves parallel to the main cutting edge is more effective in reducing the burr length, bending deformation of fiber chip and the tearing phenomenon of machined surface. The possible mechanisms for the effects of micro-textures on the surface quality of machined CFRP were revealed.