Study of the surface roughness, material removal rate and deflection in thin-walled composite structures during the high speed machining process

Nowadays, due to the need of composite structures with thin walls in industry and due to low weight ratio to high strength, has received more consideration than before. Composite laminates are cause of more problems and damages in machining process. This problems are especially in thin wall composite structures. One of the best ways for preventing damage during machining process in thin wall composite structures is use of machining process with high speed. In this study effect of milling parameters in high speed on surface roughness, material removal rate, and deflection in thin wall composite structures was studied. For this purpose, firstly were made samples of glass- epoxy composite with thicknesses 2mm, 4mm and 6mm and then milling process with high speed and changing spindle speed, feed rate, and cutting depth was done. To get test results using an experimental design. Comparison of the optimization results on composites with different thicknesses by the response surface methodology, showed that the optimal values of surface roughness 2.12 μm and material removal rate 5.99 mm3/min and deflection of 0.082 mm is for the sample with a thickness 6 mm. In composites with a thickness 6 mm due to higher rigidity, better results were obtained. Also, the predicted error rate was calculated in comparison with the experimental values obtained for the surface roughness parameters, material removal rate and deflection rate 6%, -5.22% and 2.5%, respectively, which indicates the favorable agreement between the experimental results and statistical analysis.