Drilling | EPFL Graph Search

Drilling is a cutting process where a drill bit is spun to cut a hole of circular cross-section in solid materials. The drill bit is usually a rotary cutting tool, often multi-point. The bit is pressed against the work-piece and rotated at rates from hundreds to thousands of revolutions per minute. This forces the cutting edge against the work-piece, cutting off chips (swarf) from the hole as it is drilled. In rock drilling, the hole is usually not made through a circular cutting motion, though the bit is usually rotated. Instead, the hole is usually made by hammering a drill bit into the hole with quickly repeated short movements. The hammering action can be performed from outside the hole (top-hammer drill) or within the hole (down-the-hole drill, DTH). Drills used for horizontal drilling are called drifter drills. In rare cases, specially-shaped bits are used to cut holes of non-circular cross-section; a square cross-section is possible. Process Drilled holes are c

Cutting Force Modelling for Drilling of Fiber-Reinforced Composites

Mihai-Bogdan Lazar

Although used in a very large variety of applications, drilling is one of the most complex and least understood manufacturing processes. Most of the research on drilling was done in the field of metal cutting for mechanical parts since, in this case, high precision and quality are needed. The use of composite materials in engineering applications has increased in recent years, and in many of these applications drilling is one of the most critical stages in the manufacturing process. This is because it is among the last operations in the manufacturing plan of composite parts. Delamination and extensive tool wear are among the problems which drilling of composite materials are currently facing. A major difference between metallic and composite plates is their structure: isotropic for metals and anisotropic for composite materials; meaning that while for metallic materials all the structure will respond in a similar manner under the machining loads, the composite structure will have localized responses from the same loads, leading to defects in the internal structure of the remaining work-piece material (i.e. delamination). Delamination can lead to failure in use and parts with such defects are usually discarded. Delamination is not usually visually detectable and special testing is necessary, affecting the costs of the final parts. Delamination during drilling was found to occur at tool entry (peel-up) or tool exit (push-out) and depends on the loads at inter-laminar level. The work presented in the current thesis focuses in providing reliable information about the thrust and torque distribution along the drill radius (and work-piece thickness) during drilling for varying cutting parameters, drill geometry and work-piece material. Such data should assist in the development of delamination models capable of capturing the influence of the drill geometry and cutting parameters on delamination onset and propagation during both exit and entry of the drill in the work-piece. A cutting force model is proposed to obtain the elementary cutting force distribution along the drill radius which is able to account for changes in axial feed rate and drill geometry. Based on oblique cutting, forces are considered on both rake and relief faces. A generic relationship in the form of a transformation matrix is developed to relate oblique cutting to drilling, valid for any drill geometry. The mathematical description of the drill geometry in the scope of cutting force modeling has been revised. The kinematics of the drilling process is now taken into account for (i) all geometrical parameters of the drill and for (ii) the elementary cutting forces decomposition. Additionally, a new drill type and its geometric features have been described mathematically and the definition of the geometrical parameters has been generalized so that other drills types or variations could be easily implemented into the model. It proved therefore possible to adopt simpler expressions for the empirical force coefficients of the cutting force model. Up to four empirical coefficients are used, which are calculated from experiments for each work-piece material and drill type. Most experimental investigations on drilling fiber reinforced composites analyze only the total thrust and torque generated during drilling or separately the forces caused by the chisel edge and cutting lips by drilling with or without a pilot hole. The later type of analysis suggested that is possible to obtain more detailed information about the distribution of the loads in drilling from the analysis of the forces variation during tool entry into the work-piece. Pursuing this direction, an experimental analysis method is proposed to obtain the axial and tangential elementary cutting force distribution along the tool radius or work-piece thickness. The cutting force distribution obtained experimentally was used to calibrate the cutting force model, rather than the total thrust and torque. The experimentally obtained cutting force distribution can also be used alone for analyzing the drilling process (i.e. the loads distribution among the plies of the composite laminate and how this load is influenced by changes in the drill geometry and the cutting conditions).

EPFL2012

Experimental analysis of drilling fiber reinforced composites

Mihai-Bogdan Lazar, Paul Xirouchakis

In comparison with metals, long-fiber reinforced composites have a layered structure, with different properties throughout their thickness. When drilling such structures, internal defects like delamination occur, caused by the drilling loads and their uneven distribution among the plies. The current experimental analysis is focused towards determining the cutting loads distribution (axial and tangential) along the work-piece thickness and tool radius by analyzing the thrust and torque curves when drilling with 3 different drills carbon-fiber (CFRP) and glass-fiber (GFRP) reinforced composite plates. A wide range of cutting parameters is tested. The highest loads are found at the tool tip in the vicinity of the chisel edge for all cases. It is also found that the maximum load per ply varies mainly with the axial feed rate and tool geometry, while the spindle speed has little or no influence. The analysis is useful for selecting the cutting parameters for delamination free drilling and also for conducting drill geometry optimizations. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

2011

Mechanical load distribution along the main cutting edges in drilling

Mihai-Bogdan Lazar, Paul Xirouchakis

Used in a very large variety of applications, drilling is one of the most complex manufacturing processes. Most of the research on drilling was done in the field of metal cutting since, in this case, high precision and quality are needed. The use of composite materials in engineering applications has increased in recent years, and in many of these applications drilling is one of the most critical stages in the manufacturing process. Delamination and extensive tool wear, affecting the quality and the costs, are among the problems which drilling of composite materials are currently facing. Understanding and predicting the cutting forces occurring during drilling of such materials would allow extending the currently used optimization methods and proposing new tool geometries and tool materials. The current paper introduces a new mechanistic model for predicting the cutting force distribution along the cutting edges of a drill. A simple, generic and effective method is proposed to relate drilling to oblique cutting using a direction cosine transformation matrix valid for any drill geometry. The oblique cutting model used considers forces on both rake and relief faces, and a simple system of empirical coefficients (their number is significantly less than other similar models). The empirical coefficients are calculated assuming the work-piece material is isotropic. The model is validated on experiments carried out on carbon-fiber and glass-fiber reinforced composites using two different drill types (tapered drill reamer and 2-facet twist drill), which are described in more detail in a previous published paper. The mathematical expression of the drill geometry is also reviewed; removing certain assumption, generalizing some definitions and introducing new drill geometry and features.

Elsevier2013

Cutting Force Modelling for Drilling of Fiber-Reinforced Composites

Mihai-Bogdan Lazar

EPFL2012