ABSTRACT
Among various polymer composites, glass fiber reinforcement with epoxy resin is widely used due to its flexibility, strength and stiffness. Drilling of GFRP in industry is unavoidable for fastening and assembly operations. During drilling GFRP due to the difference in densities of glass fiber and epoxy resin drill bit experience variable thrust force and torque. The main aim is to find out the optimized cutting parameter which reduces thrust force and torque during drilling. The influence of thrust force and torque during drilling GFRP is to be analyzed to arrive optimum machining condition that provides maximum tool life and enhances the quality of GFRP. This project outlines the Taguchi optimization methodology, which is applied to optimize cutting parameters in drilling of Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastics (GFRP) materials. The drilling parameters used in the experiment are spindle speed and feed. A series of experiments are conducted using CNC milling machine to relate the cutting parameters and material parameters on the cutting thrust and torque. An orthogonal array, regression analysis is employed to analyze the influence of these parameters on cutting force and torque during drilling. This study will be useful for predicting thrust and torque as a function of drilling parameters and GFRP. The data obtained from the drill dynamometer were further examined by visual recurrence analysis software. From the experiment we can infer that thrust force is minimum at the cutting condition which has the feed of 15 mm/min at a speed of 1250 rpm. Similarly, minimum torque can be obtained in cutting condition which has a feed of 5mm/min and speed 1250rpm. This cutting condition can be taken as the apt cutting condition for drilling of GFRP materials.
