Tool Wear Reduction Effect of Water-Miscible Cutting Fluid in End Milling of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic

Abstract

-Recently, carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) has come to be commonly used in the aviation and automobile industries. However, it is well known that CFRP is a difficult-to-cut material because it increases tool wear dramatically. This paper presents the influence of water-miscible cutting fluid on tool wear (tool life) in the end milling of CFRP. The conclusions can be summarized as follows: In down-cut milling, the tool wear is less than that in up-cut milling. The tool wear obtained with a feed rate of 100 mm/min is less than that obtained with 200 mm/min. The water-miscible cutting fluid used in the experiments reduces tool wear and improves tool life compared with the cases using dry cutting and water, irrespective of the cutting speeds. The velocity dependence is low; that is, the tool life obtained when changing the cutting speed from 69 m/min to 171 m/min is almost unchanged. The tool life curve obtained with the water-miscible cutting fluid tends to show a shortened tool life as the cutting speed is decreased, which is opposite of the tool life trend for dry cutting. The average wear rate in the initial wear region in addition to the low initial wear width affect the tool life; that is, when the wear rate is low, the tool life tends to extend.