Evaluation on advantages of low frequency assisted drilling (LFAD) aluminium alloy Al7075

Drilling operation of dissimilar stack materials is a crucial assembly operation in airframe manufacturing; this is due to both the number of holes drilled in an aircraft structure and the fact that this is an operation performed in the finishing phase of the manufacturing chain. This paper aims to evaluate an alternative strategy for conventional drilling and peck drilling, which are now the most widespread solutions used for drilling aluminium alloys. The alternative approach proposed by this paper consists of low frequency assisted drilling (LFAD) performed into frequencies vibrations (between 50 to 100 Hz). In this paper, the chip formation process of drilling assisted by low-frequency vibrations of FC/Al stack material has been analytically modelled and compared with the conventional drilling of aluminium. Results show chip segmentation during the drilling operation resulting in less temperature increasing, avoiding problems in the final geometrical quality of the hole, and burr formation.