New machinability study of glass fibre reinforced plastics using polycrystalline diamond and cemented carbide (K15) tools

The machinability refers to the ease or difficulty with which a given composite material can be machined. It is very important to understand the factors affecting the machinability and to evaluate their effects. This paper aims to investigate the machinability in turning processes of glass fibre reinforced plastics (GFRP’s) manufactured by hand lay-up. A plan of experiments was performed on controlled machining with cutting parameters prefixed in workpiece. A statistical technique, using orthogonal arrays and analysis of variance (ANOVA), has been employed to know the influence of cutting parameters on specific cutting pressure and surface roughness. The objective is to evaluate the machinability of these materials in function of cutting tool (polycrystalline diamond and cemented carbide tools). A new machinability index has been proposed.