OPTIMIZATION OF MACHINING PARAMETERS IN CFRP/TI STACKS DRILLING

Carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) and titanium (Ti) stacks have been steadily replacing metals as choice for engineering materials in aerospace applications. Although materials can be manufactured separately and stacked together to attain a near-net shape, it still involves post processing operations such as trimming and drilling. In order to drill holes efficiently without defects (delamination, circularity, variation in hole diameter) in the CFRP/Ti stacks, it is essential to understand the machining behavior of stacks. An experimental study on the drilling of CFRP/Ti stacks was conducted using K20 carbide drill. The drilling characteristics were evaluated for drilling force and torque, delamination in CFRP, drilled-hole quality (hole diameter and circularity) and exit burr height in Ti. This paper describes an attempt made to maximize the hole quality parameters by employing multi-objective optimization using weighted sum method.