Milling of fiber reinforced polymer composites

Components made of Fiber reinforced polymers (FRPs) are commonly produced by near net-shape that often require the removal of excess material to control tolerances, and milling is carried out in order to trim the part to final dimensions. Milling of Fiber Reinforced Composite materials is a rather complex task owing to its inhomogeneous in nature and the number of problems, such as surface delamination, fiber pullout and rapid tool wear that appear during the milling process associated with the characteristics of the material and the cutting parameters. A thorough literature review has been conducted on milling of FRP materials. Cutting forces, tool wear, cutting temperatures, chip formation and surface quality are all used to assess the machinability of FRPs and thus will be discussed here for milling process. Some important research issues are identified, and as a conclusion, studies on some critical issues are proposed to meet the challenges in analysis and optimization for milling processes of FRPs. As the chip formation in milling of FRP varies from nano to micro size, its effect on the health and safety in industries will be addressed. Further, gives recommendations for quality machining of FRPs based on operator control of cutting configuration, process parameters, and proper selection of cutting tools.