SWOP – Sustainable Renewal of Drills for Composite Materials in Aerospace Applications

Due to their high lightweight potential, CFRP materials are increasingly used in aerospace applications. Machining is typically carried out using solid carbide drills, which experience rapid wear due to the abrasive fiber structure. This results in high tool costs and limited sustainability in component manufacturing. Although drills can be reground, subsurface tool damage is usually not detected, limiting the performance of reground tools. At the same time, the production of conventional resin-bonded grinding wheels is energy-intensive and inflexible. A reproducible and condition-adapted regrinding process that increases tool life, reduces costs, and conserves energy and resources is currently lacking.

Objectives

The goal of the SWOP project is to develop a sustainable regrinding process for solid carbide drillsused in CFRP machining. To achieve this, the project will:

• Develop AI-based methods for detecting surface and subsurface tool wear
• Establish regrinding strategies that adapt the grinding allowance to the actual tool condition
• Manufacture novel polymer-bonded grinding wheels via 3D printing to provide more energy-efficient and application-specific grinding tools

Combining these approaches will significantly increase tool lifetime, process stability, and resource efficiency.

Benefits

• Extended tool lifetime
• Reduced tool and process costs
• Material and energy savings through 3D-printed grinding wheels
• Increased process reliability and component quality

Approach

The project is carried out together with BDW-Binka Diamantwerkzeuge GmbH, Seco Tools AB, Elitkomposit AB and Lund University.

First, wear mechanisms and drilling processes are investigated experimentally. Based on this, a model for wear assessment and determination of the grinding allowance is developed. In parallel, a 3D printing process for polymer-bonded grinding wheels is designed and regrinding strategies are derived. Finally, the new regrinding process is validated on industry-relevant CFRP components.

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Contact Christian Heller via email at heller@ifw.uni.hannover.de or by phone at +49 511 762 18066.