Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology

The future demand for high-performance composite structures will increase significantly throughout all knowledge-based European industrial sectors like aerospace, automotive, energy, construction, consumer, and medicine. Aiming for the achievement of market forecasts, the currently applied manufacturing methods need to be substantially improved in order to increase cost-effectiveness of composite-based materials. This also applies for the final machining, especially drilling, of those materials.

Objectives and approach

To increase the cutting performance of FRP and FRP metal stacks, a new drilling system/process will be developed and optimized in the VibroCool project. The planned system will combine vibration assisted drilling with internal cryogenic cooling and special polycrystalline diamond drills. For a successful implementation of this technology, a modular approach was chosen, focusing on system, cutting tool and process development, which finally will be integrated into the VibroCool technology platform. Throughout the project, demonstration of intermediate and integrated solutions will play an important role.

Expected impact

The overall impact for the industry includes the increase in drilling performance of FRP´s and FRP metal stacks. It will be achieved by reduced production costs, higher productivity and improved tool life, while the bore-hole quality will be increased at the same time.

Consortium

Within the VibroCool project, a multidisciplinary consortium consisting of one research institute, five manufacturers of key technologies (machine tools, machine spindles, ultra-sonic assisted devices, cutting tools and mineral fluids), and one end user will cooperate together.

Project duration:       36 month

This collaborative project is funded by different national agencies within the ERANET-MANUNET network