Mechanical Joining of Composites: Drilling Related Aspects

Resumen

Composite materials have experienced a significant growth in its use, especially in advanced manufacturing industries. The excellent ration between properties and weight makes these materials the most suitable for the development of aerospace components and structures. Most of manufactured elements are subjected to joining processes to form more complex components in final products. Although a wide variety of bonding procedures (adhesives, welding, mechanics, etc.) are used in several industrial fields, mechanical bonding procedures using non-definitive assembly elements represent an important part of the aircraft manufacture.The mechanical joining processes are generally based on the assembly of two or more parts by means of auxiliary elements. Under this consideration, the use of rivets, bolts, and screws are widely used in composites parts. Nevertheless, for the installation of auxiliary joining elements, a hole-shaped housing adapted to the joining requirements of the assembled parts needs to be performed. For this reason, drilling processes are included on the most common machining stages for composite components development. Although it is a relatively simple cutting process, a correct understanding of the parameters and features involved in the manufacture of the hole is the first requirement to ensure the quality of the results in joining applications.