Experimental investigation on micromachining of epoxy/graphene nano platelet nanocomposites

Fu, Guoyu; Huo, Dehong; Shyha, Islam; Pancholi, Ketan; Alzahrani, Bandar

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of graphene nano platelet (GNP) content (%weight fraction) on the machinability of epoxy/GNP nanocomposites. The machinability of nanocomposites with varying loadings of GNP content was evaluated experimentally through the characterisation of cutting forces, surface morphology, chip morphology and tool wear. The minimum chip thickness phenomena of epoxy/GNP occurred at feed per tooth (FPT) between 0.2 and 0.4 μm. In order to achieve to better surface quality, the FPT should be over 0.4 μm. Epoxy/GNP with 1.0 wt% nanocomposite has produced the highest cutting force of a feed rate of ~ 3 N at 12 μm/rev. Epoxy/GNP nanocomposites exhibit the different cracking tendencies compared with plain epoxy, and the tool wear for GNP/epoxy nanocomposites is very small compared with metal nanocomposites. There is no significant difference in slot width accuracy between different types of tools, such as uncoated tool, diamond-like carbon-coated and diamond-coated tools.

Citation

Fu, G., Huo, D., Shyha, I., Pancholi, K., & Alzahrani, B. (2020). Experimental investigation on micromachining of epoxy/graphene nano platelet nanocomposites. International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 107, 3169-3183. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-020-05190-4

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 9, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Apr 10, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020-04
• Deposit Date: Oct 2, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 2, 2020
• Journal: International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology
• Print ISSN: 0268-3768
• Publisher: Springer
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 107
• Pages: 3169-3183
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-020-05190-4
• Keywords: Micromachining, Micro milling, Nanocomposites, Graphene nano platelet (GNP)
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2686732