DefinePK

Abstract

Nowadays composites are finding wide application in all fields of Engineering as a result of their desirable properties and qualities. Drilling is the most widely recognized machining operation performed on composites and the nature of drilled hole has a vital bearing. The tools used for drilling play a major role in increasing the profitability of a cutting process. Although the price of such tools are moderately low, the wastages caused by tool failures are relatively higher. Therefore, from the perspective of expense and efficiency, optimization of drilling processes are of much importance for the assembling and manufacturing industries. The poor expulsion of chips in deep and fine drilling of small diameter holes is often the cause of breakage of tools as well as the low quality surface. The effect of different drilling parameters on quality of drilled holes in drilling Aluminium based hybrid composites has been discussed in detail. The experiments were conducted on a Vertical machining centre using Solid Carbide twist drill and step drills of diameter 5mm, 7.5mm and 10mm. Response surface model is developed to correlate the quality of drilled holes namely surface roughness and circularity error with respect to different drilling parameters. The machining parameters considered for the experiments are spindle speed, feed rate, diameter and type of drills. The results proved that the developed model can be effectively used for the prediction of drilled hole quality of the hybrid composites.