Conventional and unconventional machining performance of natural fibre-reinforced polymer composites: A review

Abstract

Natural fibre composites are the promising replacement for synthetic fibre owing to their improved properties, and more importantly, natural fibres are biodegradable and of low cost. These characteristics have made them viable for contemporary engineering and structural applications. However, large scale production of natural fibre composites is in prone because of the challenges in manufacturing and machining. Fibre composite exhibits poor machinability characteristics owing to their heterogeneous and anisotropic behaviour. To overcome this problem, various steps and new methodologies have been established in the view to produce quality machining in natural fibre composites. In recent years, the possibility of conventional machining in natural fibre composites was also discussed. In the present review study, an effort has been taken in studying the fibre composite’s machining characteristics and their failure mechanism in both conventional and unconventional machining. The influence of process parameters in machining different natural fibre composites is also discussed.