Influence of spatial engagement conditions on workpiece temperature in grinding of unidirectional CFRP

Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) are favoured for their high strength to weight ratio, excellent directional mechanical and thermal properties, and the ability to be optimized in the direction of stress or heat flow. These properties make it ideal for power transmission applications. Heating of the machined surface during grinding can lead to reduced workpiece quality, particularly if the glass transition temperature of the matrix is exceeded. The selection of tool-material, process parameters and cooling strategy significantly influences heat flow from the region of tool-workpiece interaction and changes in the workpiece temperature. Machining unidirectional CFRP is challenging due to its anisotropic behaviour, resulting in different machining temperatures for identical parameters with different fibre orientations. A universal process-independent model describing the spatial engagement conditions during oblique cutting of unidirectional CFRP was used. The model introduces the spatial fibre cutting angle θ0 and the spatial engagement angle φ0. Using this description, an experimental setup for investigating the workpiece surface temperature of CFRP for all possible engagement conditions was developed. In this paper, the machining temperature is determined for all possible spatial engagement conditions during the machining of CFRP using thermographic camera. Furthermore, the influence of the cutting material in the cases of corundum and diamond is analysed as well as the influence of the cutting speed.