An experimental study on the effects of various drill types on drilling performance of UD and woven flax fiber reinforced composites

Natural flax fiber reinforced composites have strong potential to replace glass fiber reinforced plastics. Hole making is one of the most important machining operations that are performed on composite structures to ease the join and assembly operation. Understanding the effects of drilling process parameters on feature properties of natural fiber composites has great benefits. In this regard, to make a high quality and accurate hole in composite structures, appropriate selection of drill bit is important. This paper investigates the effect of three different drill types on the size and shape of drilling-induced delamination and hole quality in UD and woven flax/epoxy composite laminates. The hole quality and the shape of delamination were realized to be influenced by the fiber type and drill bit type.

Keywords:

Drilling , Delamination , Drill type , Flax fiber , Composite