I love to see tips for manufacturing on here. There is a wealth of engineers and folks involved in manufacturing on LinkedIn but I rarely see posts like this. Thanks for sharing.

CFRPuses

Prior to drilling a hole or holes it is common practice to pre-machine with a spot drill or center drill to ensure positional accuracy for the drill. One of these two tools will be part of your process. So the question is, which tool should I use?

Carbon fiber composite materials, also known as carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP), are composite materials made of carbon fibers and resin (mainly epoxy resin).As light, strong, and hard materials, they are used in wide range of applications such as sporting goods, industrial, aircraft and automobile components. By selecting suitable resin, it is possible to add features like heat resistance, impact resistance, and flame retardant, and thus provide superior characteristics not found in conventional metals and ceramics to enable a reduction in the weight of parts, give freer design.

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- Spot drills are available in several tip angles including 82, 90, 100, & 120 degrees. This allows you more flexibility being able to produce a chamfer or countersink now with the same tool and even prior to drilling. Which means that you can often eliminate your countersink tool from the process. Next advantage is the strength of the spot drill. Very rarely will you break this tool in comparison to a center drill.  Center drills are prone to break at the end of its pilot where the angle begins. The Spot drill has no pilot or weak point, therefore you can feed faster as well.

In conclusion, altering your process from center drill to spot drill will always increase productivity. Only use a center drill when producing a 60 degree angle for a lathe center.

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