Optimization of surface roughness in turning unidirectional glass fiber reinforced plastics (UD-GFRP) composites using polycrystalline diamond (PCD) cutting tool

Abstract

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";="" mso-ansi-language:en-us;mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:ar-sa"="" lang="EN-US">Glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) composite materials are a feasible alternative to engineering materials and are being extensively used in variety of engineering applications. Machining of unidirectional glass fiber reinforced plastic (UD-GFRP) composites is different from that of conventional materials and causes excessive tool wear. A study is conducted in the machining of unidirectional glass fiber reinforced plastic (UD-GFRP) composite material to investigate the effect of tool nose radius, tool rake angle, feed rate, cutting speed, depth of cut and along with cutting environment (dry, wet and cooled (5-7°C) temperature) on the surface roughness produced. The experimental results reveal that the most significant machining parameters for surface roughness is feed rate followed by cutting speed. Cutting environment does not influence the surface roughness significantly. The predicted values and measured values are in good agreement as observed by further confirmation experiments.</span>