The effect of peel ply layer on hole integrity when drilling carbon fibre-reinforced plastic

Shyha, Islam; Soo, Sein Leung; Aspinwall, David; Bradley, Sam

Abstract

Fibre/matrix delamination is a common problem when cutting carbon fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) that can have a detrimental effect on workpiece mechanical properties and hence compromise the in-service performance of the composite part. The present paper details experimental results when drilling small holes (1.5 mm diameter) through backed and un-backed CFRP laminates using tungsten carbide twist drills to determine the effect of peel ply layers (∼100 µm thick nylon sheet attached on both sides of 3 mm thick laminates) on hole entry and exit delamination. Considerable reduction in damage relating to fuzzing, spalling, edge chipping, and delamination was observed when drilling the nylon-backed CFRP material, with scanning electron micrographs showing significantly inferior hole quality for the corresponding un-backed workpieces, particularly at hole exit.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Jun 3, 2011
• Publication Date: 2011-07
• Deposit Date: Dec 16, 2020
• Journal: Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part B Journal of Engineering Manufacture
• Print ISSN: 0954-4054
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 225
• Issue: 7
• Pages: 1217-1223
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2041297510393797
• Keywords: drilling, composites, carbon fibre-reinforced plastic, delamination
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2686914
• Related Public URLs: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/11020/