The Evaluation and Mathematical Modelling of Surface Roughness in Milling of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composite Materials

The usage of carbon fiber reinforced composite materials increase at the present time; owing to their low density, fatigue resistance, higher strength and higher rigidity than the composites produced with glass fibers. In addition to this, these materials are hard to cut materials comparing to the others. In this study, surface roughness formation was investigated by using PCD cutting tools in milling of carbon fiber reinforced composite materials. Additionally, a mathematical model was built. During the experiments, PCD end mills with three different geometries were used. These end mills designed and produced as a part of the study. Experiments were conducted on a CNC vertical machining center. Three different cutting speeds (350, 400 and 450 m/min) and a constant feed rate (1270 mm/min) were used as cutting parameters. Increasing cutting speed effects surface roughness values positively. Moreover, the efficient parameters on surface roughness values were determined according to acquired ANOVA statistics following regression analysis