Oscillating Finish Grinding of CFRP with Woven Metal Wire Tool Utilizing Plunger Pump Pulsation

Delamination or fiber out often occurs when machining carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs) with conventional cutting tools. Moreover, the tool life is short. As a new machining strategy for peripheral finishing of CFRP plates, an oscillating finish grinding process with a woven metal wire (WMW) tool utilizing plunger pump pulsation is proposed in this study. A WMW tool is a type of core drill, but the tool body is made of woven metal wire. A wire mesh and grinding fluid supplied from the inner side of the wire netting are expected to prevent the clogging of CFRP chips on the tool surface. However, the surface machined by the side face of the WMW tool becomes wavy as the wavy side surface of the WMW tool is copied to the machined surface when the rotating tool moves vertically to the tool axis. To overcome this limitation, a tool oscillation mechanism utilizing plunger pump pulsation action was newly developed and applied for finish grinding. As a result, it was demonstrated that the machined surface roughness of the CFRPs was improved through axial oscillation of the WMW tool.