Reducing drilling-induced delamination in composite tube by magnetic colloid back-up

Drilling is an indispensible machining process for building a load-carrying structure of composite materials. Delamination defect is often produced at the exit of drilling, which threatens the service safety of the structure. There are back-up methods to reduce delamination when drilling the open flat-plate composite structure, but none for drilling into the curved-surface or hollow-shape structures. This study describes an innovative method using electromagnet and the deformable inexpensive colloid mixed with iron powder to produce magnetic back-up force at drilling exit to suppress delamination in industrial tube parts. The delamination extent can be reduced by 60–80%. The optimal volume ratio of powder-to-colloid is found 1:3.