Drilling Performances of Kenaf Fibre/Steel Mesh Reinforced Hybrid Epoxy Composites

Drilling is one of the important machining operations in polymer matrix composites, which is used to join the polymer composites temporarily. The fiber reinforced polymer composites are widely used in automobile and aerospace fields in which the polymer composites are to be joined with similar or dissimilar materials. The present work focuses on the effects drilling parameters (speed and drill diameter) on kenaf fiber/steel wire mesh hybrid epoxy composites. To obtain the better mechanical properties, the hybrid composites are designed in such way that two layers of kenaf fiber and one layer of steel wire mesh reinforced in epoxy resin matrix. Delaminations, fiber pullout, and cracks are observed in microscopic examinations. Two different parameters of drilling speed and drill diameters are varied to cognizance the mechanism of delamination. The acceptable quality level of drilled holes was measured using toolmakers microscope through by calculating the circularity of drilled holes.