Forming and drilling of fiber metal laminates – A review

Abstract

In aviation industries, most of the stiffened structural components are manufactured by forming and laminating process. Combination of several conventional manufacturing processes is required in modern industries in hybrid laminate production. Fiber metal laminates undergo various joining process during assembly of aero-structures. Among them, forming and drilling are often required during assembly. Understanding the significance of various process parameters enables quality production and assembly of fiber metal laminates structures. Many researchers explored the cause and effect of few parameters and mechanisms which significantly alter the quality of form and drill. This review describes the progress in forming and drilling of fiber metal laminates for aerospace applications. Especially towards the process parameters, defects and their causes along with the preferred solutions recommended by the researcher society in forming and drilling processes. Numerous factors have controlled the quality of forming and drilling processes. Due to the machining parameters, different failure modes will occur in different layup of the laminates. To overcome the failures in machining/forming of fiber metal laminates, choosing the optimum parameter for the selection based procedure is needed to improve quality of fiber metal laminates.