Machinability study on polyetheretherketone (PEEK) unreinforced and reinforced (GF30) for applications in structural components

Composites such as polyetheretherketone (PEEK) used in structural components, are generally manufactured by extrusion, and for this fact, these recent materials need additional machining operations. One of the major concerns in machining is to reach a good surface roughness and dimensional precision. So the aim of this paper is the study of the cutting parameters (cutting velocity and feed rate) under machining force (F-m), specific cutting pressure (K-s), surface roughness (R-a) and International dimensional precision (IT) in PEEK unreinforced and reinforced (GF30). A plan of experiments, based on the methodology of Taguchi, was established considering turning with prefixed cutting parameters in the PEEK workpiece. The analysis of variance was preformed to investigate the cutting characteristics of PEEK using a polycrystalline diamond cutting tool. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.