Drilling of Fibre Reinforced Polymers and Hybrid Stacked Materials

Hole making represents the majority of the machining operations of composites and hybrid stacked aerospace-structures. Conventional drilling induced part defects, such as delamination of layers and thermal damage of the matrix, are of major economic and safety concerns for aerospace manufacturers. This chapter discusses selected emerging non-conventional processes for drilling of composites and hybrid stacks, which could effectively prevent the sources of drilling induced damage without compromising the process productivity. The discussion in this chapter has focused on process optimization based on understanding the mechanics of the process. Additionally, a new online cyber-physical adaptive control (CPAC) capability is presented, which demonstrates the maximization of tool life and process productivity while preserving the part quality based on integrated advanced process modeling and smart real-time tool wear detection.