Title: Investigation of the machinability characteristics of GFRP/vinyl ester composite using design of experiments

Authors: Naresh Deshpande; Hari Vasudevan; Ramesh Rajguru

Addresses: Department of Production Engineering, D.J. Sanghvi College of Engineering, Mumbai, 400056, India ' D.J. Sanghvi College of Engineering, Mumbai, 400056, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, D.J. Sanghvi College of Engineering, Mumbai, 400056, India

Abstract: Many glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite components made from primary melt processes require additional machining to meet the requirements of assembly and accurate dimensional tolerances. Despite the wide applications of reinforced vinyl ester resin in electrical components, automotive structural applications, mining and chemical process industries, high performance marine applications and sporting goods, very little is known about its machining aspects. Cutting force is treated as one of the primary measures of machinability of materials. In this study, the effect of cutting parameters and tool nose radius on the main cutting force in the turning of vinyl ester and woven fabric-based GFRP composites manufactured by hand lay-up process is investigated. Polycrystalline diamond turning tool inserts are used for machining. The force was measured through longitudinal turning, according to the experimental plan developed based on Taguchi methodology. The signal to noise ratio and analysis of variance were applied to the experimental data in order to determine the effect of the process variables on cutting force.

Keywords: machinability; CNC turning; reinforced vinyl ester resin; woven fabric; hand lay-up; Taguchi methods; polycrystalline diamond; PCD tooling; ANOVA; analysis of variance; glass fibre reinforced polymer; GFRP composites; design of experiments; DOE; tool nose radius; cutting force; signal to noise ratio; SNR.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMM.2014.060549

International Journal of Machining and Machinability of Materials, 2014 Vol.15 No.3/4, pp.186 - 200

Received: 05 Aug 2013
Accepted: 18 Oct 2013
Published online: 13 May 2014 *

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