Recently, carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) has been attracting much attention in various industries because of its beneficial properties such as excellent strength, modulus per unit density, and anti-corrosion properties. However, there are several issues in its application to various fields. Severe tool wear issues in its machining have been noted as one of the most serious problems because it induces various serious machining failures such as delamination and splintering. In this regard, timely tool replacement is essential for reducing the influence of tool wear. In this study, tool wear, especially flank wear, in the CFRP drilling was investigated and monitored. First, the reproducibility of tool wear under the same machining condition was experimentally evaluated. And it is demonstrated that tool wear may remarkably differ even though the same machining condition is applied to the tools. Then, tool wear monitoring based on the feed motor torque was applied to the detection of tool life ending in the CFRP drilling process. Consequently, it was demonstrated that the average and maximum detection error of the tool life end were less than 7 and 14%, respectively.

Transportation machine manufacturers are putting in efforts on research based on weight reduction. One of the representative materials for weight reduction is Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP). Increased used of FRP, glass fiber and carbon fiber could be a way of weight reduction. It is almost unavoidable to generate holes or notches during structural design. Little research have been carried out based on cracks with respect to materials used for design. The utilization of finite element analysis and the reliability of the analysis methods are increasing in order to promptly cope with the damages in materials. In this study, Compact Tension (CT) model based on ASTM E647 was designed using SM45C, steel for structural use, short fiber Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic (GFRP), and woven type Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP). In addition, J-Integral, which is a factor for determination of growth of crack that appears in cracks, was applied to general structure analysis. J-Integral is an equation of the body force of the material and strain energy in accordance with the loading force, and illustrates the crack growth using energy release rate. J-Integral values of SM45C, short fiber GFRP and woven type CFRP were found to be approximately 74,978 mJ/mm², 7492.3 mJ/mm² and 6222.4 mJ/mm², respectively.

In this study, flexible fixtures and end effectors are conceptually designed for the holding of thin-walled carbon-fiber reinforced-plastic (CFRP) workpieces in machining processes. Firstly, the fixture scenarios and system requirements for the conceptual designs of flexible-fixture and core units are proposed, including the propounding of the workpiece-holding mechanism and the core-unit requirements. A ball-joint pneumatic system is determined as a locking mechanism of the flexible-fixture system for the machining of thin-walled components. Secondly, conceptual designs of the core units are suggested with the driven requirements from the fixture scenarios. A self-tilting mechanism and an end-effector return mechanism are also proposed. Finally, the prototypes of the core units are manufactured, and the workpiece-holding capacity of each prototype is measured.