Drilling characteristics and properties analysis of fiber reinforced polymer composites: A comprehensive review

Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites play a vital role in the production of structural and semi-structural components for engineering applications. The drilling process is a commonly employed machining process for FRP composites to join the FRP structural elements. Usually, the FRP composites possess a heterogeneous nature because of their multi-layered structure, hybridization, and the presence of multi-phase materials. Hence, common problems like delaminations, fuzzing, buckling, cracking, matrix and fiber burning occur during the drilling operations. These problems cause dimensional inaccuracy, poor surface finish, and tool wear and reduce the mechanical strength of the composites. …