Wet machining of CFRP

The machining of carbon reinforced plastics (CFRP) is considerably different from the machining of metallic materials. CFRP is a heterogeneous material, because fibres and matrix have different properties. Furthermore carbon fibres are hard which causes high abrasive tool wear and thus induced high costs. Moreover the sensitivity to temperature of the polymer matrix hinders the adjustment of the process factors (chipping thickness, cutting rate, feed rate) by limiting the maximum cutting rate. Also hazardous and partly alveolar CFRP-dusts, which occur while machining CFRP, display a major problem. Until now the majority of machining takes place without the use of cooling lubricants. Though wet machining can show significant advantages compared to dry machining in the view of productivity, dust binding, machining quality and tool wear. In this article, the potential of wet machining of CFRP is illustrated by means of the milling process.