Machining of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics/Polymers: A Literature Review

Abstract

Carbon fiber reinforced plastics/polymers (CFRPs) offer excellent mechanical properties that lead to enhanced functional performance and, in turn, wide applications in numerous industrial fields. Post machining of CFRPs is an essential procedure that assures that the manufactured components meet their dimensional tolerances, surface quality and other functional requirements, which is currently considered an extremely difficult process due to the highly nonlinear, inhomogeneous, and abrasive nature of CFRPs. In this paper, a comprehensive literature review on machining of CFRPs is given with a focus on five main issues including conventional and unconventional hybrid processes for CFRP machining, cutting theories and thermal/mechanical response studies, numerical simulations, tool performance and tooling techniques, and economic impacts of CFRP machining. Given the similarities in the experimental and theoretical studies related to the machining of glass fiber reinforced polymers (GFRPs) and other FRPs parallel insights are drawn to CFRP machining to offer additional understanding of on-going and promising attempts in CFRP machining.