Reaming of carbon fibre reinforced plastics: Influence of tool geometry on process forces and tool wear

Abstract Due to the high abrasive wear and the tendency to workpiece damages, the manufacturing of high-quality bores in carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) is still one of the major goals in tool development. In this work, reaming tests are performed on CFRP in order to characterise the relationship between tool geometry, process forces and tool wear. After a preliminary investigation of a taper reamer, diverse carbide tools have been tested which exhibit different values of rake and clearance angle. The forces measurement took place using a rotating dynamometer, while the evaluation of the tool wear has been realised by microscopic images via structured light projection. Different forms of wear appear, while hardly any differences in the force curves can be detected when applying different angles of the cutting wedge.