— Fiber reinforced polymer composites have gained substantial attention as engineering structural materials in automotive, marine and aircraft industry as well as in civil engineering applications. This is due to their outstanding... more
— Fiber reinforced polymer composites have gained substantial attention as engineering structural materials in automotive, marine and aircraft industry as well as in civil engineering applications. This is due to their outstanding mechanical properties, impact resistance, high durability and flexibility in design capabilities and light weight. However, the delamination and the unstable crack growths are inherent problems associated with these fabric reinforced composites. Damage of composite structures through delamination are unstable crack growth perhaps the most important aspects of mechanical behavior which limit the wide applications of these materials. Machining of composite materials is difficult to carry out due to the anisotropic and non-homogeneous structure of composites and to the high abrasiveness of their reinforcing constituents. This typically results in damage being introduced into the work piece and very rapid wear development in the cutting tool. Conventional machining processes such as turning, drilling or milling can be adapted to composite materials, provided proper tool design and operating conditions are maintained. The present work also describes the machining (drilling) of GFRP composites with the help of Step drill of three sets, with three different speeds. Further work has been carried out by immersion of GFRP composites in sea water for 8 hrs, 16 hrs and 24 hrs duration and performed drilling operation. Results revealed that 8-4 mm step drill showed better machining characteristic than the other two 12-8 mm and 10-6 mm step drills. The ZnS Filled GFRP composites had better performance than TiO2 filled GFRP Composites.
