Deburring Bores in Composite Aircraft Parts

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Deburring Bores in Composite Aircraft Parts

Mar 7, 2018

The image shows on the left the bore entry and on the right the bore exit before deburring.

Challenge

There are two major challenges to machining composites: one is to cut the fibers neatly without fraying; the other is that the abrasiveness of the material leads to heavy wear on the cutting edge of the tool blade. HEULE worked with this aircraft manufacturer to develop a cost-effective solution (a tool with a long blade life) that would also deburr the bore neatly.

Application details

Bore-Ø: 4.81 mm
Material 1: CFRP (Carbon fiber-reinforced plastic)
Material 2: GFRP (Glass fiber-reinforced plastic)
Machine: Mori Seiki NV5000 / 4 Axis Milling Machine
Processing: Vertical Machining

Solution

HEULE developed a special tool based on the COFA C3. The carbide blade has a cutting geometry that is optimized for composites and is coated.

Machining parameters:

Speed: 2000 U/min
Feed: 0.04 mm/U

Results

The customer is satisfied by the deburring result and by the tool life of the blade.

HEULE COFA Deburring Tool from HEULE Precision Tools on Vimeo.

Interested in a COFA deburring tool? Visit the COFA product page for more info.