Aerospace Composite Cutting Tools With PCD Tools

In recent years, the space aviation industry has developed rapidly, and it has gradually become one of the pillar industries of our country. The materials used in the parts of aviation products mainly involve high-strength steel, aluminum alloy, titanium alloy, super-alloy, composite materials, and other types. The cutting elements on the aircraft body mostly use aluminum alloy, titanium alloy, composite materials, high-strength steel, and other materials. Its structure size is large, size coordination parts; The parts involved in cutting on aero engine mainly use titanium alloy, super-alloy, stainless steel, and composite materials, and its processing accuracy requirements are high.

CFRP Application In Aero Field

In both civil and military fields, the appearance of carbon brazing composite (CFRP) has brought revolutionary changes to aircraft manufacturing. The new carbon-fiber composite plane has a smoother, more uniform surface than traditional aircraft and will experience much less air resistance at high speeds, increasing the speed. Carbon brazing composite (CFRP) has a high specific strength and specific rigidity; the light effect is pronounced. This material is 50% lighter than steel and 30% lighter than aluminum, which is widely concerned by domestic and foreign aircraft manufacturing enterprises.

Carbon fiber has been recognized as the ideal material to replace aluminum alloy in aircraft manufacturing. And CFRP is widely used in the wing, fuselage, vertical tail, flat tail, fuselage floor beam, rear pressure frame, and other parts. However, carbon fiber composites (CFRP) are difficult to cut for machining due to their high hardness, low inter-layer shear strength, and low thermal conductivity. The difficulty of its processing is that the delamination and damage caused by cutting will significantly impact the tool’s life, so to solve the cutting problem of carbon fiber composite material (CFRP) must first solve the service life of the device.

Advantages And Cases Of PCD Cutting Tools In Composite Materials Processing

After machining experiments, the poly crystalline diamond cutting tool (PCD) can significantly improve the surface quality of CFRP, promoting grinding instead of turning and enhancing production efficiency. It is an ideal tool.

Poly-crystalline diamond (PCD) tool has the characteristics of high hardness, high compressive strength, good thermal conductivity and wear resistance, small friction coefficient, slight affinity with other materials, and can obtain high machining accuracy and efficiency. When drilling CFRP, the processing efficiency and wear resistance of the PCD bit are much higher than that of the carbide bit.

Diamond (PCD) tools are more efficient than traditional tungsten carbide (WC) devices for machining parts in the power machinery field. Many leading tool manufacturers are developing and producing PCD bit products. The cutting edge of these tool products is PCD material, and the drill body part is monolithic carbide material. The rigid alloy drill body has good rigidity and dimensional accuracy to ensure the drilling quality. The spiral chip discharge groove can improve the chip discharge performance. These characteristics are essential for drilling. Cutting-edge part adopts PCD material, have high wear resistance, and can improve processing efficiency and service life.

For example, processing carbon brazing composite (CFRP) wing parts 

The original scheme is a unique carbide end mill for processing composite materials. The dry-cutting method is adopted, and the surface roughness of the components is required to reach Ra1.2μm. Now using PCD milling cutter machining, compared with the original scheme, the linear speed increased by 81%, feed per turn increased by 42%, and processing technology and cutting allowance remained unchanged. As a result, the tool life of our PCD can reach five times that of cemented carbide knife, the processing efficiency is also significantly improved, and the machining surface quality is better.

For example, countersink drills,

We weld the PCD cutter head on the cemented carbide matrix, which mixes the advantages of hard alloy and PCD material. This way is more suitable for processing composite materials, has a better finish than traditional hard alloy countersink drilling, and has an extended processing life.

As a typically tricky material to process, composite materials are prone to tear, burr, delamination, thermal damage, and other processing problems, which put forward high requirements on the sharpness, wear resistance, and stability of cutting tools. To meet customer processing requirements, we supply a series of PCD tools with a PCD reamer, PCD forming cutter, PCD faces milling cutter, PCD drill, and other non-standard tools. Our engineers are pleased to supply tech support according to your machining requirement.