Turning Carbon Fiber Composites

What's the best insert for turning carbon fiber composites?

At first it might seem that machining fiber-filled composites with hard cutting tools would be a recipe for disaster. Developers of cutting methods and tools for composites face all kinds of problems. A composite's fiber layers can delaminate from the machined surface; the fibers or other hard reinforcements are abrasive and reduce tool life considerably; and the combination of hard and soft materials that make up a composite complicates the best choice of tool and machining parameters.

What do I use then?

Diamond will interact with carbon in ferrous materials, so its use is largely restricted to nonferrous workpieces. Today, the automotive industry is the major user of diamond tools in machining components made of aluminum-silicon alloys--in particular the 300 series of aluminum alloys. Major applications for silicon-containing aluminum materials are in pistons, engine heads, blocks and manifolds, wheels, and transmission parts. Other significant applications for diamond tools are in machining graphite, carbon-carbon (C-C) composites, metal-matrix composites (MMC), and fiber reinforced plastics (FRPs).


Where do I find the tools?

PCD Inserts
Diamond Coated Inserts

What about speeds and feeds?

Speeds and feeds for machining composites with pcd

special thanks to SME for information on machining composites