This excellent volume will serve as an indispensable reference and source book for process design, tool and production engineers in composite manufacturing. It provides the reader with a comprehensive treatment of the theory of machining as it applies to fiber reinforced polymer composites. It covers the latest technical advances in the area of machining and tooling, and discusses the applications of fiber reinforced polymer composites in the aircraft and automotive industries.

This book covers current advances and practices in machining fibre-reinforced polymer composites under various conventional and nonconventional processes. It presents recent research and practices for effective and efficient machining of difficult-to-cut material, providing the technological ‘know-how’ on delamination-free of drilling, milling, trimming, and other cutting processes on fibre-reinforced polymer composites. It also guides the reader on the selection of optimum machining parameters, tool materials, as well as tool geometry. This book is of interest to academicians, students, researchers, practitioners, and industrialists working in aerospace, automotive, marine, and construction industries.

Presenting modern advances in the machining of ceramics and composites, this work offers broadly based, fundamental information for selecting the appropriate machining processes and parameters, developing successful manufacturing strategies, and designing novel machining systems. It focuses on scientific and engineering developments affecting the present and future of machining processes.

This brief focus on drilling of polymer matrix composites for aerospace and defence applications. It gives an introduction to machining of polymer composites and discusses drilling as a processing of composites.

Machining of Metal Matrix Composites provides the fundamentals and recent advances in the study of machining of metal matrix composites (MMCs). Each chapter is written by an international expert in this important field of research. Machining of Metal Matrix Composites gives the reader information on machining of MMCs with a special emphasis on aluminium matrix composites. Chapter 1 provides the mechanics and modelling of chip formation for traditional machining processes. Chapter 2 is dedicated to surface integrity when machining MMCs. Chapter 3 describes the machinability aspects of MMCs. Chapter 4 contains information on traditional machining processes and Chapter 5 is dedicated to the grinding of MMCs. Chapter 6 describes the dry cutting of MMCs with SiC particulate reinforcement. Finally, Chapter 7 is dedicated to computational methods and optimization in the machining of MMCs. Machining of Metal Matrix Composites can serve as a useful reference for academics, manufacturing and materials researchers, manufacturing and mechanical engineers, and professionals involved with MMC applications. It can also be used to teach modern manufacturing engineering or as a textbook for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate engineering courses in machining, manufacturing or materials.

This book covers a wide range of conventional and non-conventional machining processes of various composite materials, including polymer and metallic-based composites, nanostructured composites and green/natural composites. It presents state-of-the-art academic work and industrial developments in material fabrication, machining, modelling and applications, together with current practices and requirements for producing high-quality composite components. There are also dedicated chapters on physical properties and fabrication techniques of different composite material groups. The book also has chapters on health and safety considerations when machining composite materials and recycling composite materials. The contributors present machining composite materials in terms of operating conditions; cutting tools; appropriate machines; and typical damage patterns following machining operations. This book serves as a useful reference for manufacturing engineers, production supervisors, tooling engineers, planning and application engineers, and machine tool designers. It can also benefit final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students, as it provides comprehensive information on the machining of composite materials to produce high-quality final components. The book chapters were authored by experienced academics and researchers from four continents and nine countries including Canada, China, Egypt, India, Malaysia, Portugal, Singapore, United Kingdom and the USA.

The potential application areas for polymer composites are vast. While techniques and methodologies for composites design are relatively well established, the knowledge and understanding of post-design issues lag far behind. This leads to designs and eventually composites with disappointing properties and unnecessarily high cost, thus impeding a wider industrial acceptance of polymer composites. Manufacturing of Polymer Composites completely covers pre- and post-design issues. While the book enables students to become fully comfortable with composites as a possible materials choice, it also provides sufficient knowledge about manufacturing-related issues to permit them to avoid common pitfalls and unmanufacturable designs. The book is a fully comprehensive text covering all commercially significant materials and manufacturing techniques while at the same time discussing areas of research and development that are nearing commercial reality.

This book offers an insight into the primary and secondary manufacturing of different class of polymer matrix composites (PMCs). The major focus is on the fabrication of a variety of PMCs with substantial coverage of various processing techniques and related advantages and limitations. The book also describes secondary manufacturing processes such as machining and joining of PMCs and provides the know-how related to developing these techniques. It discusses recently commercialized tools and techniques and highlights the opportunities provided by the design and development of newer cutting tools and machining methods. The book covers material selection guidelines, product manufacturability, product development process, and cost-estimating techniques that help readers to understand where a process fits within the overall scheme and which is appropriate for a particular component. This book provides professionals with valuable information related to composites product manufacturing as well as state-of-the-art knowledge in this field.

Composite materials are engineered materials, made from two or more constituents with significantly different physical or chemical properties which remain separate on a macroscopic level within the finished structure. Due to their special mechanical and physical properties they have the potential to replace conventional materials.

Natural fibre composite is an emerging material that has great potential to be used in engineering application. Oil palm, sugar palm, bagasse, coir, banana stem, hemp, jute, sisal, kenaf, roselle, rice husk, betul nut husk and cocoa pod are among the natural fibres reported to be used as reinforcing materials in polymer composites. Natural fibre composites were used in many industries such as automotive, building, furniture, marine and aerospace industries. The advantages of natural fibre composites include low cost, renewable, abundance, light weight, less abrasive and they are suitable to be used in semi or non-structural engineering components. Research on various aspects of natural fibre composites such as characterization, determination of properties and design have been extensively carried out. However, publications that reported on research of manufacture of natural fibre composites are very limited. Specifically, although manufacturing methods of components from natural fibre composites are similar to those of components from conventional fibre composites such as glass, carbon and Kevlar fibres, modification of equipment used for conventional fibre composites may be required. This book fills the gap of knowledge in the field of natural fibre composites for the research community. Among the methods reported that are being used to produce components from natural fibre composites include hand lay-up, compression moulding, filament winding, injection moulding, resin transfer moulding, pultrusion and vacuum bag moulding. This book is also intended to address some research on secondary processing such as machining and laser welding of natural fibre composites. It is hoped that publication of this book will provide the readers new knowledge and understanding on the manufacture of natural fibre composites.