Sub-Fiber Scale Precision Dicing of Aramid Fiber-Reinforced Plastic Composites

Aramid fiber-reinforced plastic (AFRP) composites are widely used in aerospace, rail transit, marine and military industries, due to their high specific strength, high impact resistance, fatigue resistance and excellent designable properties. In order to meet different application requirements, cutting processes need to be carried out, such as window opening, edge cutting and slit cutting. However, the characteristics of high tensile strength and toughness, low interlaminar strength, non-uniformity and anisotropy make AFRP composites a difficult-to-machine material. They are prone to produce rough cutting surfaces and cutting damages including burr, wire drawing, delamination, resin burn, material flanging, etc. To solve this problem, the ultra-thin diamond dicing blade was used for high-speed cutting of AFRP composites in sub-fiber scale in this research. The influence of process parameters on cutting force, cutting temperature, maximum spindle current, tool wear and cutting surface quality were investigated by establishing the cutting force model, L16(45) orthogonal experiment, single factor experiment, range analysis and variance analysis. The theoretical and experimental results show that cutting AFRP composites with ultra-thin diamond dicing blade can obtain smooth surfaces without common cutting damages. When the cutting speed is 91.11 m/s (spindle speed n = 30,000 r/min), the cutting depth is 0.2 mm and the feed speed is 5 mm/s, the surface roughness Ra can be as low as 32 nm, which realize the precision cutting of AFRP composites.