Hole drilling in ceramics/Kevlar fiber reinforced plastics double-plate composite armor using diamond core drill

Both engineering ceramics and Kevlar fiber reinforced plastics (KFRPs) are difficult to cut, so is the ceramics/KFRP double-plate composite armor. In this work, an experimental study of drilling the ceramics/KFRP double-plate composite armor by using a special sintering diamond core drill has been carried out on a general-purpose drilling machine. Machining mode, drilling sequence, and machining efficiency have been discussed based on drilling experiments. According to the discussed experimental results, machining using manual step feed, drilling the KFRP backboard firstly, and selecting the reasonable technical parameters could greatly facilitate the hole drilling in the ceramics/KFRP double-plate composite armor. The results achieved show that the machining method presented in this work is applicable for small order production. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.