A case for aggressive drilling of aluminum

Considering that drilling constitutes about 40% of all metal-cutting operations, there is a surprisingly small number of published articles addressing drilling in general and high-speed drilling in particular relative to other areas of metal cutting such as turning and milling. And although the speed at which aluminum gets drilled has been climbing through the years, there appears to be yet a large margin to grow. Applications that involve drilling large number of holes encompass industries such as the aerospace, automotive, and potentially many other industries. As such, these same industries would stand to benefit handsomely from drilling holes at increasingly more rapid rates. Combinations of properly set high cutting speed and tool feed resulting in proportionally large material removal rate summarize aggressive drilling (AD). The basic ingredients for commercially viable, aggressive, yet economical drilling are coming together nowadays, promising a quantum leap in the speed (thousands of meters per minute) and, consequently, the feed at which drilling takes place. Drilling at many times the conventional rates undoubtedly translates into faster productivity, the savings of which typically would dwarf the cost associated with excessive tool wear. The trends, issues and challenges of aggressive drilling are reviewed in this paper.