Investigation of Process Parameters in Drilling of Carbon Black Reinforced Electrically Conductive Polypropylene Composite

Abstract

Polymer composite materials have been used in many fields such as aircraft and aerospace, automotive, electrical and electronic industries, marine and sport equipments. Each industrial sector demands different properties that the composite material must satisfy. Composite materials which are obtained by reinforcing high electrically conductive materials such as carbon black, carbon fiber, graphite, graphene, metals and metal oxides, carbon nanotubes can be employed in applications that demand the electrical conductivity besides high specific strength and stiffness properties of polymer materials. In this study, neat and carbon black reinforced electrically conductive polypropylene (PP) materials were drilled at different cutting speed and feed values and with drill tools having different drill point angle and cutting temperature, surface roughness of holes, and chip forms were investigated. Regular chip forms and low temperatures were observed at small cutting speed and high feed while small surface roughness was obtained at high cutting speed and small feed. In drilling of carbon black reinforced polypropylene, smaller lower surface roughness, lower temperature, and more regular chip forms were obtained as compared to neat polypropylene. In addition, it was observed that the drill tool with small point angle showed better performance.