Accepted Manuscript

Secondary cutting edge wear of one-shot drill bit in drilling CFRP and its impact
on hole quality

Fuji Wang, Baowei Qian, Zhenyuan Jia, Rao Fu, De Cheng

PII: S0263-8223(17)30112-5
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2017.04.024
Reference: COST 8455

To appear in: Composite Structures

Received Date: 14 January 2017

Revised Date: 29 March 2017
Accepted Date: 13 April 2017

Please cite this article as: Wang, F., Qian, B., Jia, Z., Fu, R., Cheng, D., Secondary cutting edge wear of one-shot
drill bit in drilling CFRP and its impact on hole quality, Composite Structures (2017), doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
j.compstruct.2017.04.024

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 Secondary cutting edge wear of one-shot drill bit in drilling CFRP and its impact on hole quality

Fuji Wang, Baowei Qian, Zhenyuan Jia, Rao Fu, De Cheng

School of Mechanical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, No.2 Linggong Road, Ganjingzi District, Dalian City,

Liaoning Province, People’s Republic of China

Abstract

Drilled hole quality of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) deteriorates quickly with rapid tool wear,

which ultimately influences service performance of CFRP parts. And for one-shot drill bit, it is the secondary

cutting edge that directly determines hole surface quality. This work first carries out an investigation on wear

evolution of secondary cutting edge of one-shot drill bit in drilling CFRP. The tool wear is characterized by the

cutting edge rounding (CER) and the flank wear (VB), and the tool wear measurement interval is shrunk down

to every two holes to obtain detailed wear mechanisms. The secondary cutting edge is found prone to dulling

according to CER and cutting edge profile. However, flank wear has regrinding effects on the cutting edge,

which in turn decreases CER. Then combined with chip formation mechanisms, tool wear impacts on cutting

capabilities of secondary cutting edge under various fiber cutting angles are investigated. And CER is proved

to determine cutting capabilities under acute fiber cutting angles. Based on above analyses, initiation of hole

surface damages and damage formation mechanisms are further discussed. Damages induced by degradation

of cutting capabilities are of great difference within and across prepreg laminates under various fiber cutting

angles.

Key words: Tool wear; Secondary cutting edge; Cutting edge rounding; Cutting capability; Hole surface

quality.
1. Introduction

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) has been widely adopted to manufacture large-scale structural

parts such as center wing boxes and fuselages in the aviation industry due to its light weight, high strength,

high resistance to corrosion, etc [1-4]. And a large amount of bolt and rivet connections are needed for

assembling those large structural parts, thus, the hole-drilling process is common in the manufacturing of

CFRP parts. Also it is of great importance because drilled hole quality has a direct impact on the assembly

quality and the service life of final products [5,6]. CFRP is anisotropic and has constituents of the fiber

reinforcement and the resin matrix. Drilled holes are prone to delaminations because of weak bonding within

laminates. Currently, multi-edge and multi-facet drill bits such as the one-shot drill bit are commonly applied

for drilling CFRP parts [6] to effectively reduce thrust force and improve drilled hole quality.

However, there are still many challenges in drilling CFRP parts on the account that the highly abrasive

carbon fiber reinforcement can cause rapid tool wear [7-9]. The rapid tool wear will induce the increase of

thrust force that enlarges possibilities of delaminations [6,10], and also deteriorates hole surface qualities by

generating uncut fibers, fiber pullouts, etc [11-14]. Therefore, the rapid tool wear can lead to hole-drilling

problems and cause severe risks for the CFRP parts, such as unscheduled repairs, delays in delivery and even

scrapping throughout the hole-drilling process [8].

With the fact that tool geometrical structures have become more and more complex in drilling CFRP, the

wear characteristics along various cutting edges are different. In the drilling of metal, the cutting process

generally consists of material removals by the chisel edge, the primary cutting edges and the tool margins of a

twist drill, and each of the edges plays its own role in the machining [15]. Different types of drill bit wear,

such as flank wear, crater wear on rake face, chisel edge wear and margin wear, have been observed on the

drill edges because drill bit geometries and cutting conditions vary from the chisel edge to the drill margins

[16]. Correspondingly, damages induced by different types of wear along various cutting edges are not

identical [17-21]. Therefore, it is clear that the specially designed drill bits with complex structures would

encounter different tool wear along cutting edges as well as induce diverse quality issues in drilling CFRP.
 In machining CFRP, abrasive wear is the dominant tool wear mechanism [9,22,23]. Chips and highly

abrasive carbon fibers act as abradants to scratch cutting edges under dynamic loadings, which leads to rapid

tool wear. [9,14,22,24] did a lot of researches on tool wear types of coated and non-coated drill bits in drilling

CFRP, and they found that cutting edge dulling, flank wear, chipping and micro-chipping of coating were

common. Furthermore, [23-31] investigated the tool wear along different cutting edges in machining CFRP,

and chisel edges and edge corners were prone to chippings at the early stage. And uniform wear was shown

along cutting edges. At the stable wear and the intense wear stages, flank wear occurred on account of

scratching by carbon fibers. There were wear marks caused by abrasion on tool margins as well reported by

[14,31]. As for tool wear impacts on hole qualities in drilling CFRP, [8,11,25] found that micro chipping and

dulling of cutting edge could induce burrs and delaminations at both hole entry and hole exit. And there was

linear relation between the cutting edge rounding and the delamination damages. [12,14] showed tool wear

also caused uncut fibers and fiber pullouts. [9] studied the tool wear effect on hole dimensional accuracy in

drilling CFRP, and flank wear was found to have a great impact on hole quality and circularity.

Tool wear studies at present mainly focus on tool wear types and tool wear impacts on final hole qualities.

When drilling aerospace grade CFRP, tool wear happens rapidly, and it leads to severe quality issues such as

unacceptable delaminations and burrs in less than tens of holes. In current researches, near or even over a

hundred of holes are usually drilled in experiments, and tool wear measurements are carried out every dozens

of holes. The large wear measurement interval cannot capture the cutting edge wear details and help to reveal

how the tool wear initiates drilling damages. What’s more, few researches provide clear investigations on how

different wear types along functional cutting edges affect cutting capabilities of drill bits as well as how the

tool wear evolution induces hole surface quality issues. And it is especially true for commonly used one-shot

drill bits. The drilling process of the one-shot drill bit consists of several functional drilling stages [32]. The

primary cutting edges perform pre-drilling and the primary cutting edge’s radius is relatively small compared

to the nominal diameter of the whole drill bit. Thus the primary cutting edges are less possible to affect the

quality of hole surface. However in the counterboring and reaming process by the secondary cutting edges, the
defects induced by chisel edge and primary cutting edges can be effectively removed [33]. The tertiary cutting

edges mainly perform smoothing and chipping evacuation and do not contribute to cutting off fiber

reinforcement. Therefor for such type of drill bit, it is the secondary cutting edge that mainly determines the

hole dimensional and surface quality. With the wear aggravation of secondary cutting edges, the damages

induced by the chisel edge and primary cutting edges cannot be effectively eliminated by secondary cutting

edges leading to fiber pullouts, matrix cracking, etc. Therefore, it is of great importance to fully investigate the

wear progress of secondary cutting edges of one-shot drill bits and tool wear impacts on tool edge cutting

capabilities. And on the basis of tool wear influences on the drilling process, that how tool wear ultimately

induces hole quality issues should be revealed.

This work presents a detailed research on the secondary cutting edge wear types and wear mechanisms of

the one-shot drill bit in drilling aerospace grade T800 CFRP and further analyzes how tool wear impacts the

cutting capability of the edge as well as how tool wear initiates drilled hole quality issues. The tool wear

measurement interval is shrunk down to every two holes to reveal tool wear details. Cutting edge rounding

(CER) is introduced to characterize the dullness of the secondary cutting edge. By applying flank wear (VB),

the root cause of the cutting edge rounding fluctuation is studied. Then combined with chip formation

mechanisms, the wear impacts of secondary cutting edge on cutting capabilities under various fiber cutting

angles are investigated. And based on the above analysis, the initiation of hole surface damages induced by

tool wear and the damage mechanisms are further discussed.

2. Materials and experimental methods

2.1 Workpiece and drill bit

In this work, the aerospace grade T800 CFRP is utilized as workpiece material. And the workpiece is

manufactured by prepregs in the layout of [(-45/90/45/0)2/90/90/90]S. The workpiece is cured under high

pressure in autoclave at Shenyang Aviation Industry Corporation. The fiber volume of the prepreg is around
60%, and detailed physical properties are listed in Table 1. The dimension of the workpiece is

120mm×20mm×4.2mm, and three pieces of such laminated workpiece panels are used in the experiment. The

one-shot drill bit with the diameter of 8mm is utilized for the whole drilling process. The drill bit substrate is

K44UF tungsten carbide (WC) without coating, and the WC grain size is 0.7µm. The drill bit geometrical

parameters are shown in Fig.1.

Table 1
Mechanical properties of the T800 prepreg.
Density/(g/cm3) Longitudinal young’s Longitudinal shear Transverse Tensile Compressive
modulus/GPa modulus/GPa poisson’s ratio strength/MPa strength/MPa
2.7 160 6.21 0.36 2843 1553

Fig.1 Geometrical parameters of the one-shot drill bit in the experiment.

Fig.2 Drilling experiment setup.

2.2 Experimental setup and drilling parameters

The experimental setup is shown in Fig.2. The drilling experiment is carried out on GONA 5 axis machine

center with the maximum spindle speed of 8000rpm. The Parlec angle head is mounted on the spindle, which

transforms the vertical drilling to horizontal drilling while keeping the transmission ratio at 1:1. The CFRP
workpiece is clamped on the fixture which is mounted by 2 fastening bolts on the dynamometer. Since the

support at hole exit could affect CFRP drilled hole quality, the fixture has pre-drilled holes with the diameter

of 14mm, which helps to ensure the support of the workpiece panel and eliminate the unnecessary influence

factors. Kistler 9257B dynamometer is used to measure cutting force signal, and the cutting force signal goes

through charge amplifier and AD conversion, then the signal is transmitted to a laptop for data acquisition. The

sampling rate is set at 3kHz. The dynamometer is vertically bolted on a specially designed fixture, which

ensures drilling is stable enough. In drilling process, the spindle speed is set at 3000r/min (Vc=75m/min), and

the feed rate is set at 100mm/min (f=0.033mm/r). When the drilling process becomes unstable, the experiment

comes to an end. And totally 20 holes are drilled.

2.3 Quantification of tool wear

Recently, cutting edge rounding (CER) has been widely accepted as the representation of cutting edge

dullness in tool wear researches [14,34]. The studies show that the dulling of cutting edge is a uniform wear

phenomenon along cutting edges caused by abrasive wear. With the increase of CER, cutting edges become no

longer sharp, and the CER can provide researchers with more information in the research of wear of complex

drilling tools. This work focuses on the utilization of CER to evaluate the dullness of the secondary cutting

edge. And VB is adopted to represent the flank wear of the secondary cutting edge. In the experiment, tool

wear is examined off-line every 2 holes on the Keyence microscope (VHX600). The CER is measured and

calculated by referencing [35]. At first, the 3D profile of the secondary cutting edge is obtained by using the

depth composition function of the microscope. Then 2D profile of the cutting edge is extracted by the

microscope’s internal software on the basis of the 3D profile, as shown in Fig.3. Finally, the data of 2D profile

are used to fit the CER, and the influence of flank wear on the cutting edge rounding calculation can be

minimized using iterative fitting by implementing the method in the reference mentioned above. Flank wear

VB measurement is performed by referencing [25] and details are shown in Fig.4. The calculation of flank

wear is carried out also based on the data of 2D profile of the secondary cutting edge.
 Fig.3 2D profile of secondary cutting edge obtained by microscope.

Fig.4 Measurement of flank wear VB.

2.4 Measurement of hole quality

The measurement of hole diameter is carried out on the three-coordinate measuring machine (Zeiss Prismo).

And the measurement of surface roughness is performed on the surface profiler (Taylor Hobson PGI840).

Keyence VK-X260 laser confocal microscope is utilized to scanning hole surfaces, and SEM (FEI Q45) helps

to achieve the micro-observation of hole surface.

3. Results and discussion

3.1 Wear of secondary cutting edge

The wear measurement position on the secondary cutting edge is shown in Fig.5, and the measurement

position is located 50µm away from the tertiary cutting edge. The wear measurement position is located by

using a specially designed fixture which ensures the angle of the drill bit placement is the same within the each

wear measurements. And by using microscope’s dimension measurement, the 2D profile data is extracted at

the same position within all the wear measurements. Fig.6 shows the CER variations in the whole drilling

process. By referencing [14], 2D cutting edge profiles are arranged in function of the number of drilled holes

and the geometry evolution of the cutting edge is depicted in Fig.7.

Fig.5 Wear measurement position of the secondary cutting edge.

Fig.6 CER variations of the secondary cutting edge.

 Fig.7 Evolution of the secondary cutting edge profiles in function of the number of drilled holes.

The CER shows a significant increase in drilling the first 10 holes (total drilled depth is less than 42mm).

This is due to that the fiber reinforcement generates dynamic stresses on the tool edge in the drilling process.

At the early stage of drilling, the stress could result in initiation of micro cracks on the tool edge since the edge

is sharp and not strong enough to bear heavy cyclic loading, and WC grains of the tool substrate may fall away

because of brittle fractures [9]. Such kind of micro chippings leads to a large increase of CER in the first 2

holes. What’s more, the fiber reinforcement damages the soft Co binder in the abrasion process and weakens

the tool substrate. Meanwhile, the aerospace grade T800 carbon fiber is more abrasive on account of its high

hardness. The carbon fiber chips, WC grains and the fiber reinforcement become abradants all together to

scratch the tool edge, which accelerates the wear of cutting edge. In Fig.7, the profiles of tool edge have an

evident recession after drilling 6 to 10 holes (total drilled length increases from 25.2 to 42mm), which

indicates the tool substrate is greatly damaged. Thus an intense rise of CER is observed in the number of 6 to

10 holes.

While drilling CFRP, the dulling of cutting edge may lead to the fact that the edge is not sharp enough to

effectively cut off carbon fibers under certain fiber cutting angles. And uncut fibers along with WC grains and

CFRP chips slide over flank face. The scratching effect could cause severe flank wear and induce regrinding

of the cutting edge. As shown in Fig.7, the profile of cutting edge after drilling 10 holes shows a great loss of

flank face material, and the edge tip moves towards the rake face. The edge profile indicates that the flank

wear acts as the grinding tool and re-sharpens the cutting edge tip. Therefore CER value drops in the number
from 10 to 14 holes (total drilled length increases from 42mm to 58.8mm). After 14 holes, the CER returns to

rise on account of the continuous scratching of tool edge tip by uncut carbon fibers.

Flank wear VB variations of the secondary cutting edge are depicted in Fig.8. For the first 8 holes (total

drilled length is less than 33.6mm), the VB value gradually increases with tool wear. After drilling 8 holes,

especially in the number from 10 to 14 holes, the VB increases sharply and it indicates great loss of tool

substrate material on the flank face. The rising of VB corresponds to the decrease of CER. After drilling 14

holes (total drilled length is more than 58.8mm), there occurs significant wear land on the flank face (Fig.9(b))

and the VB value continues to increase afterwards. CER and VB in characterizing the wear of secondary

cutting edge in drilling CFRP compensate each other. And by combining both values and the cutting edge

profile evolution, the wear characteristics and mechanisms of secondary cutting edge are well revealed.

Fig.8 Variations of flank wear VB with drilled holes.

(a) (b)
Fig.9 Comparison of flank wear before and after drilling, (a) before drilling, (b) after 14 holes.
3.2 Secondary cutting edge wear impacts on drilling torque

Based on the geometrical structure of one-shot drill bit, the secondary cutting edge contributes largely to the

drilling torque in the drilling and reaming processes. The diameter at the end of the secondary cutting edge is

close to the final hole diameter, and the drilling torque reaches its top value there. The drilling torque variation

is illustrated in Fig.10 and each point represents the maximum torque during the drilling process. In general,

the drilling torque increases with the number of drilled holes and the total drilled length. From 10 to 14 holes

(total drilled length increases from 42mm to 58.8mm), the drilling torque rises greatly due to that the flank

wear induces intense friction between machined surface and tool flank face. And such impact leads to larger

cutting force in tangential direction, which ultimately induces increase of the drilling torque.

Fig.10 Maximum drilling torque with drilled holes.

3.3 Wear impacts on the cutting capability of secondary cutting edge

The fiber cutting angle is defined as illustrated in Fig.11. Observed from the hole entry side, the clockwise

angle between the tangential cutting velocity of the secondary cutting edge and the fiber orientation is

regarded as the fiber cutting angle. CFRP workpieces used in the experiment are quasi-isotropic laminated

panels. In the axil feeding direction, fiber cutting angles at the same cutting position of the tool edge are

different across the CFRP panel’s 22 prepreg laminates. The laser confocal microscope is applied to scan

morphology of drilled hole surface (Fig.12). In Fig.13, four different fiber cutting angle ranges (30°~45° fiber

cutting angle, 75°~90° fiber cutting angle, 120°~135° fiber cutting angle, 165°~0° fiber cutting angle) are
selected in the feed direction on the hole surface to study the wear impact of the secondary cutting edge on the

tool edge cutting capability. Under every fiber cutting angle range within one single laminate, 3 surface

profiles are extracted to calculate uncut fiber height that is used to represent the cutting capability of the

secondary cutting edge.

Fig.11 Definition of fiber cutting angle.

Fig.12 Scanning of hole surface morphology.

 Fig. 13 Four selected areas with different fiber cutting angle ranges.

Fig.14 illustrates variations of uncut fiber heights under fiber cutting angle range of 30°~45° and fiber

cutting angle range of 75°~90°. When fiber reinforcement is cut under above fiber cutting angle ranges, the

fiber is pushed by the tool in the direction perpendicular to the fiber axis and toward the workpiece subsurface.

Meanwhile, the compression imposed by the cutting edge induces shear stress perpendicular to the axis of the

fiber. And also with the advancement of the cutting edge combined with the tensile stress along fiber axis, the

fiber is fractured [36,37]. Thus, the CER has a great impact on the cut-off of carbon fibers. The uncut fiber

height increases with the augment of CER during drilling the first 10 holes (except the first 2 holes, and the

high uncut fiber heights are possible due to the micro chippings of the tool edge tip). With the gradual dulling

of the edge, it is harder to cut off fibers, and the cutting capability of secondary cutting edge deteriorates.

From 10 to 14 holes (total drilled length increases from 42mm to 58.8mm), CER decreases due to the

re-grinding and re-sharpening effects of flank wear, which helps to partially recover the cutting capability of

the secondary cutting edge. Therefore the uncut fiber height drops accordingly. After 14 holes, the cutting

capability continues to aggravate because of dulling of the cutting edge.

 (a) (b)
Fig.14 Uncut fiber height under different fiber cutting angle ranges, (a) uncut fiber height under fiber
cutting angle range of 30°~45°, (b) uncut fiber height under fiber cutting angle range of 75°~90°.

For fiber cutting angle ranges of 120°~135°and 165°~0°, the pushing force perpendicular to the fiber axis is

towards the external of the workpiece and hence the fiber gets a weaker support from the surrounding

materials, which leads to more severe fiber bending and fiber-matrix debonding, therefore the fiber is more

likely be removed by the shear fracture along the fiber/matrix interface [36,37] as depicted in Fig.15. The chip

formation mechanism indicates that the CER value generally has less direct impacts on the fiber removal.

Fig.16 illustrates surface morphologies near 135° fiber cutting angle of Hole 2, Hole 10, Hole14 and Hole 16.

By comparison the rapid tool wear lowers the breaking positions of carbon fibers along the fiber axis to the

subsurface, and the fiber reinforcement is fractured and removed in the scale of large blocking, which leads to

concave denting defects. The material removal mechanism at above fiber cutting angles are quite different

from that at acute fiber cutting angles, and there is no clear correspondence between the uncut fiber height and

CER.
 Fig.15 Chip formation mechanism.

(a) (b) (c) (d)

Fig.16 Surface morphology near 135° fiber cutting angle area, (a) Hole 2, (b) Hole 10, (3) Hole 14, (4) Hole
16.

3.4 Secondary cutting edge wear impacts on drilling damages

Fig.17 illustrates a macroscopic view of the drilled hole surface. And Area 1~10 are zones where drilling

damages easily occur. Due to the quasi-isotropic layout of prepreg laminates, areas with drilling damages are

also symmetric. Common damages include dentings and uncut fibers (at Area 1~4 and Area 6~9), fiber

pullouts (at Area 5) and matrix cracks (at Area 10).

Fig.17 Drilling damages distribution on the hole surface.

 (a) (b)
Fig.18 Surface morphology of 150° fiber cutting angle area, (a) surface morphology of Hole 2,
(b) surface morphology of Hole 14.

In microscopy, cutting conditions under 120°~170° fiber cutting angle range are similar to those under

120°~135°and 165°~0° fiber cutting angle ranges for each of the 22 laminates within the CFRP workpiece.

With the rapid tool wear, concave denting damages can be generated as discussed before. As illustrated in

Fig.18 (a) when the tool is still sharp in Hole 2, the hole surface is relatively smooth and covered with resin

matrix, however in Fig.18 (b), there are evident concave dentings on the surface after severe tool wear.

For Area 1~4 and Area 6~9, the fiber cutting angle range within each area is different from that of the

adjacent laminates. Fiber cutting angles at Area 1~4 and Area 6~9 fall under the range of 120°~170°, and

concave dentings occur within each area because of severe tool wear. However, as for the adjacent laminates,

uncut fibers are generated. Fig.19 shows the surface morphology evolution of Area 2. The surface quality at

Hole 2 is relatively smooth and good. And when at Hole 6, dentings and uncut fibers are observed. At Hole 10,

the uncut fibers become evident. The wear of the secondary cutting edge causes concave denting damages

when drilling at Area 2, and dents weaken the support for the adjacent laminates in the drilling process, which

makes carbon fibers hard to be broken at root. Furthermore, fiber cutting angles at adjacent laminates are

within the range of 30°~80°, which is similar to the cutting of 30°~45° fiber cutting angle range and 75°~90°

fiber cutting angle range. With the increase of CER, the secondary cutting edge cannot perform cutting-off of

carbon fibers well. Lack of support and the dulling of cutting edge both contribute to formation of uncut fibers.
After 14 holes, the CER drops because of the re-sharpening effect of flank wear. Although the back support for

adjacent laminates is weak, the fiber reinforcement still can be cut off to a certain extent as illustrated in

Fig.20. And at Hole 20, there are sever and unacceptable uncut fibers at both of the upper and the lower

laminates adjacent to Area 2.

(a) (b) (c)

(d) (e)
Fig.19 Surface morphology evolution of Area 2, (a) surface morphology of Hole 2, (b) surface morphology
of Hole 6, (c) surface morphology of Hole 10, (d) surface morphology of Hole 14, (e) surface morphology of
Hole 20.
 Fig.20 Area 2 morphology of Hole 14.

Fig. 21 Fiber pullouts in Area 5.

At Area 5 in Fig.18, fiber cutting angles across the 6 laminates are identical in the drilling process because

of same prepreg layouts. And fiber cutting angles of the area fall under the range of 120°~160°, however, the

fiber pullouts are the main damage as illustrated in Fig.21. The result indicates that other than the tool wear,

the prepreg layouts of laminates have interacting effects on adjacent laminates when machined by the cutting

edge, and thus could lead to different quality issues.

Area 10 in Fig.18 consists of several laminates that are cut under around 90° fiber cutting angle, and the

microscope observation shows the matrix cracks easily occur because of tool wear. Such type of defects was
reported by [7,38] as well, and the matrix crack seriously reduces the load-bearing capacity of final parts.

When fiber reinforcement is cut under around 90° fiber cutting angle, the gradually increased CER

deteriorates the cutting capability of the cutting edge and induces higher tangential cutting force. The matrix

could not bear the excessive tangential force and then cracks initiate. As shown in Fig.22, matrix cracks occur

at the center part of hole surface after 8 holes. And at Hole 10, the CER reaches its peak value, and matrix

cracks are severe. After 14 holes, matrix cracks are still visible, and there occurs significant flank wear.

Although CER decreases, the flank wear causes intense friction between machined surface and tool flank face.

And it thus leads to high tangential force as well, which in turn still induces the matrix cracks. Except for Hole

20, the resin matrix may be melt due to excessive heat caused by severe tool wear and then cover the cracks.

(a) (b) (c)

(d) (e) (f)

(g) (h) (i)

Fig.22 Matrix crack at 90° fiber cutting angle area, (a) Hole 2, (b) Hole 4, (c) Hole 6, (d) Hole 8, (e) Hole
10, (f) Hole 14, (g) Hole 16, (h) Hole 18, (i) Hole 20.
3.4 Secondary cutting edge wear impacts on surface roughness

Surface roughness aggravates with the number of drilled holes and total drilled length (shown in Fig.23).

For the first 10 holes (total drilled length is less than 42mm), the dulling of cutting edge deteriorates the

cutting capability and then the edge cannot effectively cut off fiber reinforcement. The tool wear induces

damages such as fiber pullouts and uncut fibers, which worsens the hole surface quality. From 10 to 14 holes

(total drilled length from 42mm to 58.8mm), although the CER decreases, the flank wear becomes significant

and then leads to higher tangential force and drilling torque. The matrix cracks occurs as illustrated in Fig.22,

which further aggravates the surface quality and causes sharp increase of surface roughness. The results of this

experimental analysis show strong correlation among flank wear of secondary cutting edge, drilling torque and

surface roughness.

Fig.23 Surface roughness.

 Fig.24 Variations of hole diameter.

3.5 Secondary cutting edge wear impacts on hole diameter

Fig.24 depicts hole diameter variations with the number of drilled holes and the total drilled length. In the

first 6 holes, the diameter drops significantly because of rapid tool wear. And the maximum value of diameter

is at hole entry, while the minimum value of diameter is at hole exit. And the holes are shaped like trumpet.

The results may be due to the fact that the penetration of workpiece panel by chisel edge and primary cutting

edges can cause slight vibrations, which results in vibrations of secondary cutting edges when drilling at hole

entry as well. At early stages, the cutting edges are relative sharp and the vibration phenomenon leads to that

material can be cut more by secondary cutting edges in terms of volume at hole entry than that at the middle of

the hole and the hole exit. Therefore, the hole entry’s diameter is the largest and hole exit’s diameter is the

smallest. After 6 holes, the hole diameter becomes stable. But the maximum of diameter is at the middle part

of the hole, and diameters at hole entry and hole exit are almost at the same value. The holes are

spindle-shaped. The findings here correspond well with [39]. And when the secondary cutting edge is not

sharp anymore, the laminates at hole entry and hole exit become difficult to machine than intermediate

laminates [39]. There occur evident burrs and uncut fibers both at hole entry and hole exit, which may

contributes to the hole diameter variation. And although the vibration phenomenon still exists, it is not the

main influencing factor for hole diameters. Thus the diameter at the middle part of the hole is larger than

diameters at hole entry and hole exit.

3.6 Secondary cutting edge wear impacts on hole entry and hole exit

Table.2 illustrates micro observations of hole entries and hole exits. Evident burrs occur under fiber

cutting angle range of 120°~170°after severe tool wear. With the cutting capability degradation of the

secondary cutting edge, burrs are generated at both the hole entry and the hole exit after only 4 holes. After 10

holes, the CER reaches its top value and the burrs defects become significant. However, CER drops after 14

holes because of regrinding effects of flank wear, but the burrs are not diminished accordingly. As mentioned

above under the fiber cutting angle range of 120°~170°, the back supports for carbon fibers in the drilling

process are weak compared to acute fiber cutting angle ranges, and delaminations at both the hole entry and

the hole exit further weaken the support condition. Thus burrs do not fall off even though the secondary edge

cutting capability is partially recovered. And the micro observation of Hole 18 shows even worse burrs defects.

The results indicate there are no direct impacts of CER of secondary cutting edge on burrs at hole entry and

hole exit.

Table 2
Micro observation of hole entries and hole exits
Hole 2 Hole 4 Hole 10 Hole 14 Hole 18

Hole
entry

Hole
exit

4. Conclusion

This work provides an insightful research on secondary cutting edge wear of one-shot drill bit in drilling

CFRP and its impacts on tool edge cutting capability as well as drilled hole quality. CER and VB are applied

to characterize the wear evolution of the secondary cutting edge. Combined with chip formation mechanisms,

the tool wear impacts on the edge cutting capability under various fiber cutting angles are systematically
discussed, and tool wear influence on hole quality is further investigated based on the above analysis of tool

edge cutting capability. From the results in the investigation and their analyses, the following conclusions are

drawn:

(1) Cutting edge rounding is the main wear type of the secondary cutting edge for the first 10 holes in the

experiment. With increased number of drilled holes and total drilled length, the flank wear becomes

significant and exhibits re-grinding and re-sharpening effects on the secondary cutting edge, which in

turn decreases CER.

(2) Under the acute fiber cutting angle ranges of 30°~45° and 75°~90°, CER evolution has great impacts on

the cutting capability of the secondary cutting edge. And the cutting capability decreases with the

increase of CER.

(3) For each of laminate within the CFRP workpiece cut under fiber cutting angle range of 120°~170°,

excessive tool wear lowers the breaking positions of carbon fibers along fiber axis to subsurface and

fiber reinforcement is fractured and removed in the scale of large blocking, which induces concave

denting damages. Within the corresponding adjacent laminates that are cut under acute fiber cutting

angle ranges, uncut fibers can occur due to degradation of edge cutting capability and the weak back

support. And under 90° fiber cutting angle ranges, the hole surface area suffers matrix cracks on account

of both cutting edge rounding and flank wear.

(4) The experimental results show strong correlation among flank wear of the secondary cutting edge,

drilling torque and surface roughness. Both drilling torque and surface roughness aggravate rapidly after

10 holes due to the fact that severe flank wear further deteriorates the cutting condition in the drilling

process and induces degradation of surface quality. Also the rapid tool wear causes hole diameter drop at

the early drilling stage, and afterwards the hole diameter becomes stable. The experiment results

indicate there are no direct impacts of CER of secondary cutting edge on burrs at hole entry and hole

exit.
Acknowledgement:

The authors wish to thankfully acknowledge Collaborative Innovation Center of Major Machine

Manufacturing in Liaoning for the assistance in the whole experiment. This work is supported by National

Natural Science Foundation of China, No.51575082, National Natural Science Foundation of China-United

with Liaoning Province, No. U1508207, National Key Basic Research Program of China (973 Program), No.

2014CB046503, National Innovative Research Group, No. 51621064, Education Ministry’s New Century

Excellent Talents Supporting Plan Program, No.NCET-13-0081.

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