An experimental study of tool wear during end milling of carbon fibre reinforced polymer in cutting fluid condition.

Abstract 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.