A review of recent advancements in drilling of fiber-reinforced polymer composites
Rampal Rampal, Gaurav Kumar, Sanjay Mavinkere Rangappa, Suchart Siengchin, Sunny Zafar
Abstract
Fiber-reinforced polymer composites (FRPCs) are used in various sectors owing to their unique and beneficial properties, such as, high strength to weight ratio, corrosion resistance, and high stiffness. Conventionally, drilling the FRPCs leads to severe inter-ply damages such as delamination and fiber pull-out, which alleviates useful attributes and causes rejection during the application of FRPCs. Research efforts have strived to optimize the process parameters while conventionally drilling holes in FRPCs. Various tool geometries and advanced motion between the tool and workpiece are also employed. Therefore, the present work reviews the drilling of FRPCs and most of its related concerns. Moreover, non-traditional drilling techniques for FRPCs are also reviewed. Non-traditional drilling methods alleviated the hole damage to a larger possible extent. Microwave drilling of FRPCs can also be explored to produce good quality holes.