Analysis of Milling Process Parameters and their Influence on Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites

Milling of fiber reinforced polymer composites is of great importance for integrated composites with other mating parts. Improper selection of cutting process parameters, excessive cutting forces and other machining conditions would result in rejection of components. Therefore, machining conditions are optimized to reduce the machining forces and damages. This work reports practical experiments in milling, to study the effect of machining conditions on cutting force, surface roughness and damage factor of Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) composites. The experiments were carried out with a designed carbide end mill tool by a random set of milling process parameters. The results showed that machined surface integrity was highly influenced by the spindle speed followed by the feed rate. The results of the experiments were illustrated and analyzed by interaction plots and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images.