Carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) is replacing metallic components and become a valuable material that has been used in many industrial applications including biomedical, marine and automobile. This is due to their excellent performance in term of reliability, high strength and light weight. However, the machining of CFRP is challenging because the abrasiveness of their reinforcement component often resulted in high tool wear rate. This experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of cutting parameters (cutting speed and cutting condition) on tool wear of uncoated tungsten carbide end mill tool, and to observe the wear mechanism of the carbide tool mill during milling of CFRP. In this study, machining test was carried out with the presence of coolant to aid in removing the cutting heat during machining. The effect of cutting speed of 132 m/min, 151 m/min and 170 m/min with a constant feed rate of 2100 mm/min during milling process of CFRP by using uncoated tungsten carbide end mill tool were discussed. Based on the result obtained, it was found out that the value of tool wear at cutting speed of 170 m/min is higher compared to the wear value at cutting speed of 132 m/min due to the high frequency friction of tool against machined surface. Analysis of tool wear using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) found out that the primary wear observed is abrasive wear due to the rubbing action between the tool and the surface of workpiece. The cutting tool is observed to have the lowest tool wear when low cutting speed is implemented along with the presence of coolant.

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) are becoming more widely used in replacing metallic component as it offers better strength-to-weight ratio compared to steel while having high corrosive resistance. Although CFRP have always been manufactured near to net-shape, secondary machining process is still required to achieve the final dimension. Machining can cause CFRP to experience surface defects such as delamination, fiber pull-out and smeared matrix which lead to part rejection. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of cutting parameters on the surface roughness and its quality. In this investigation, cutting speeds of 132, 151 and 170 m/min with constant feed rate of 1800 mm/min were applied during end milling of CFRP using uncoated tungsten carbide end mill tool in cutting fluid condition. It was observed that high cutting speed (170 m/min) produced 45.3% lower Ra than lower cutting speed (132 m/min) after machining for 6500 mm cutting distance. The occurrence of thermally degraded resin on the machined surface was apparent at higher cutting distance between 3000 to 6500 mm. Also, it was observed that the smearing of thermally degraded resin was more obvious on higher cutting speed when compared at 132 m/min cutting speed suggesting that at higher cutting speed more heat generated that resulted in increasing the cutting temperature. Fiber pull-out was also found on the machined surface and the cavity formation changes with increasing of cutting distance resulting in relatively larger cavity.

Carbon fibre reinforced polymeric material (CFRP) is increasingly being used to replace metallic materials, particularly in the automobile and aerospace industries. The mechanical properties of the CFRP such as excellent weight to strength ratio give beneficial outcome in improving the performance of the part made from CFRP. However, machining of CFRP such as milling is difficult and challenging due to the abrasiveness of the CFRP. Therefore, the influence of cutting speeds on tool wear and surface roughness when milling CFRP in a dry condition is the aim of this paper. The milling test was carried out using 6 mm WC-Co end mill tool having 30° helix angle. Milling of CFRP was performed with three different cutting speeds, Vc (94, 113 and 132 m/min) while feed rate, f (1800 mm/min) and radial depth of cut, ae (2 mm) were remained constant. Milling CFRP with Vc =132 m/min resulted in increasing of tool wear by 15 % and increasing of surface roughness by 10% when compared with Vc = 94 m/min. CFRP surface damages such as matrix smearing, delamination and fibre pull out was observed when milling with higher cutting speed.