Reduction of Pollution During Composite Machining

Abstract

Machining of composite materials through classical way, i.e. using conventional tools for turning, drilling, milling, grinding and polish - ing, produces a lot of very small particles - dust. These particles enter the air, because machining should be performed with a minimum of sprinkling to protect composite material properties and to avoid delamination or swelling. Sometimes, even some burning of epoxide used as binder takes place during machining. Dust produced during machining of the composite material might have negative impact on health and may cause explosion. Skin inflammation or inhalation of the toxic epoxide resin, are some of the examples. Common solution of this problem is suction of particles and fume using machines creating negative pressure. Subsequent removing of these harmful substances from air is quite demanding and expensive. Moreover, using of common suction systems is many times less effi - cient than declared by producers.This contribution presents a new way of fighting with pollution caused by composite machining. The alternative machining tool for composite machining is abrasive water jet (AWJ). This tool is efficient in all basic machining processes and produces in air only about 1% of dangerous pollution comparing to classical tools. Progress of the AWJ machining system based on robot as a movement device is presented and the first results are commented. The main attention is aimed at machining quality possibilities. However, a part of the contemporary research focused on pollution suppression is also presented in the contribution.