Influence of Tool Materials on Thrust Force and Delamination in Drilling Sisal-glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (S-GFRP) Composites

Abstract

Natural fiber reinforced polymer matrix composites (PMCs) find applications in many fields in terms of research, industrial applications and widely accepted by scientists, researchers and engineers due to their inherent superior properties. In this paper the sisal fibers are incorporated with glass fiber by using polymer matrix and the S-GFRP hybrid composites have been prepared. The drilling of the composites is carried out using an auto feed drilling machine and the thrust force, drilling induced damages have been evaluated for different feed rates using brad and spur drill. From the results it has been observed that all the above said parameters affect the thrust force of the hybrid composites and the tool material was found to be an important parameter which has more effect on the thrust force and subsequently the drilling induced damage.