Development of cutting force prediction model for carbon fiber reinforced polymers based on rotary ultrasonic slot milling

Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) have got widely increased applications in aviation, defense and other industries due to their properties of high specific strength/stiffness, high corrosion resistance and low-thermal expansion. The issues like excessive cutting forces and machining damages are encountered in machining due to heterogeneity, anisotropy and low heat dissipation of these materials. The cutting forces are required to be predicted/minimized through modeling. In this article, the novel axial and feed cutting force model has been developed and validated through rotary ultrasonic slot milling of CFRP composites. The variations less than 10% have been found between the measured and corresponding simulated values of the cutting forces. However, some higher variations have also been observed in the few cases mainly due to heterogeneity and anisotropy of such material. The cutting depth is a significant parameter for axial and feed forces, while the feed rate is significant for the axial force. Both the forces decreased with the increase of spindle speed, while they increased with the increase of feed rate and cutting depth. The developed models have been found to be robust and can be applied to optimize the cutting forces for such materials at the industry level.