composite .%uchues vol. 38, No.

l-4, pp, 531-539, 1997

0 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights resewed
Printed in Great Britain
0263-8223/97/$17.00 + 0.00
ELSEVIER
PII:SO263-8223(97)00089-S

Development of a composite boring bar

Shuzo Nagano, Takayuki Koizumi, Toru Fujii, Nobutaka Tsujiuchi, Hiroki Ueda
& Kobe Steel
Doshisha University,Tanabe, Kyoto 610-03, Japan

A composite boring bar, whose stability against chattering is superior to not

only conventional steel bars but also cemented carbide bars, has recently
been developed. The main material of this composite bar is pitch-based
carbon fiber reinforced plastic. Carbon fibers aligned unidirectionally in the
longitudinal direction of the bars give high bending stiffness. Four types of
bar having different shaped steel cores were designed by FEM analysis and
produced for actual testing. A bar having a cross-shaped steel core shows
the best cutting capability and stability amongst all bars designed. This bar
can be used when the length (~5) and diameter (0) ratio L/D is 7 or even
at severe conditions while a cemented carbide bar cannot control the
chatter vibration even if the L/D is less than 6. Emphasis should be placed
on the fact that the cross-shaped steel core can increase the bending
stiffness of the bar in both tangential and radial directions by constraining
the shear deformation of the fiber layers without sacrificing the increase of
resonant frequencies. 0 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

INTRODUCTION the stability against chattering for boring bars,

When cutting long holes into the internal sur-
face of machine components, chattering
frequently occurs due to the low bending stiff-
ness and low damping ability of the boring bar
when the arm of the bar is long. Once the chat-
tering occurs, the roughness of the surface of
the machine components becomes unacceptable
to any standard, including the dimensional
accuracy, and the cutting edge is often broken.
In the case of conventional steel boring bars, it
becomes impractical to cut any metal compo-
nents due to chattering when the ratio of bar
length L to bar diameter D (L/D) is larger than
4-5 [l]. Therefore, bars made of cemented car-
bide are usually used when L/D is 4-6. When
L/D exceeds 5-6, specially devised boring bars
having anti-vibration mechanisms are some-
times required [2,3]. However, these are
expensive.
Chattering during cutting occurs as self
excited vibration. According to the chattering
theories based on the l-DOF vibration system,
the bending stiffness and resonant frequencies
of boring bars govern chattering as well as the
damping ability of the bars. In order to increase
one must use materials which have a high stiff-
ness but low density. Carbon fiber reinforced
plastics (CFRP) could meet such requirements
if high modulus fibers were to be used. Not only
high stiffness and high resonant frequencies, but
also high damping can be expected because of
the polymer matrix of CFRP [4].
The objective of the present work is to
develop a new boring bar using CFRP which
can be used at a wide range of L/D over 6. How
to design the bar and its performance are dis-
cussed and shown in this paper.
DESIGN OF CFRP BORING BAR
Chattering
Vibration during operation is classified as
forced vibration and self excited vibration.
Chattering of boring bars during internal
cutting is due to the self excited vibrations
having a regenerative feedback, generally called
regenerative chattering. In practice, boring bars
are designed to be stable against regenerative
chattering. Figure 1 shows the regenerative

531
532
Workpiece
/-
i- Tool
Fig. 1. Merritts model.
chattering model based on the l-DOF vibration
system gived by Merritt [5]. Considering outer
cutting in this model, the short tool is fixed
while the workpiece is sustained by a spring and
a damper. For inner hole cutting using a boring
bar, a workpiece is large enough to be fixed
while the bar should be represented by a mass-
spring-damper combination as shown in Fig. 2.
In the figure, F, is the cutting force acting in
the tangential direction. Due to this force, the
bar is bent in the vertical plane. FH is the radial
force acting in the radial direction of the hole
(radial force is known as shear force in outer
cutting). This force causes the bar to bend in
the horizontal plane. Figure 3 illustrates how
the regenerative effect due to former cutting
traces occurs.
Actual cutting depth u(t) at time t is defined
as
n equivalent stiffness and damping ability give
u(t) = uo- y(t)+py(t - (1)
where ug is the initial cutting depth: y is the
displacement of the cutting edge in the direc-
tion of the radial force: p is all overlap ratio of
the cutting edge determined by cutting edge
shape, cutting depth and feed: i_~governs the
magnitude of the regenerative effect; T is a
periodic time for the workpiece revolution. The
Boring-Bar
Workpiece/
Fig. 2. Modified model.
S. fVugun0 et al.
Horizontal
Regenerative effect
Fig. 3. Conceptional illustration of the regenerative effect.
cutting force F is a function of u(t) and is given
as
F(t) = k,(u)t (2)
where k, is a cutting stiffness varying according
to cutting conditions such as workpiece
material, cutting speed, feed and stiffiness of
the lathe. Based on the l-DOF system shown in
Fig. 2 the governing equation for a boring bar is
given by
F( t ) = mji( t)+cj( t)+ky( t) (3)
where m is an equivalent mass of the boring
bar, c and k are an equivalent damping coeffi-
cient and an equivalent stiffness of the bar,
respectively. By solving eqn (3) in conjunction
with eqns (1) and (2), it is obvious that high
high chattering stability to boring bars.
It is known that the frequency of chattering is
almost equal to the first resonant frequency of a
boring bar. From eqn (4), if the maximum
acceleration of a cutting edge, a, is constant, the
displacement of the cutting edge 6 decreases
with increasing chattering frequency f
Equation (5) shows the well-known relation-
ship betweenf, m and k
So, f increases with decreasing m. Thus, light-
weight bars have the advantage of stability
 Development of a composite boring bar
against chattering. In this point CFRP is one of
most attractive materials for a boring bar.
Carbon fibers
The previous section reveals that high stiffness
k, high damping c and small equivalent mass m
give a high stability of the bar for regenerative
chattering of the system. These qualities are
also preferable for anti-chattering. Therefore,
high stiffiness and light weight CFRP is an
attractive material for boring bars. Today,
graphite/epoxy composites are widely applied
not only on aero or astronomic structures but
also general products such as sports goods. For
such applications, virtually only pan-based fibers
are used. The cost of these fibers is reasonable
but the Youngs moduli of such fibers are not
enough to give bars enough bending stiffness as
compared to conventional steel bars. The
Youngs modulus of CFRP applied to boring
bars must he higher than 200 GPa (the Youngs
modulus of steel). The longitudinal Youngs
modulus EL of CFRP can be estimated by the
law of mixtures as follows when fibers are
aligned unidirectionally.
E, = E,V,+E,( 1 - V,) = E,V, (6)
where EF and E, are the Youngs moduli of the
fibers and the matrix, respectively; V, is a fiber
volume content. Usually, E,,, is much lower than
EF and V, is higher than 50%. Therefore
E,(l - V,) in the above equation is negligible.
According to eqn (6), E, must be higher than
400 GPa which implies the same stiffness as
steel bars. Pitch-based carbon fiber, whose
Youngs modulus is higher than 700 GPa is now
commercially available. Considering the varia-
tion of material data, pitch-based carbon fibers
which has a nominal Youngs modulus of
700 GPa was adopted for the prototypes of
CFRI boring bars. The average fiber volume
content was about 55% and the observed
Youngs modulus of CFRP was 300-350 GPa.
Construction of boring bars
The diameter of the boring bar is to be 32 mm,
considering fabrication and the standard tool
size. As the cutting head, which holds a cutting
tip, cannot be attached directly to the CFRP
bar, a steel adapter was developed. Figure 4
533
4 Cuttinghead steel
3 Adhession mw
2 Adapter Steel-.
1 Rod CFRP
Stnl Abptor md CFRP rod are assembled
by adhesstve and cutting head la scmwed
on rdaptor.
Fig. 4. Total assembly of the CFRP boring bars.
shows the schematic view of the CFRP boring
bars manufactured by way of trial. The adapter
whose inner hole was tapered, was bonded to
the bar using an epoxy adhesive. The commer-
cially available cutting head is fixed to this
adapter using three bolts. When the CFRP bor-
ing bars are fixed to a lathe, a specially devised
bar holder is used because the bars cannot be
subjected to concentrated loads given by
standard fastening bolts. For sufficient fixing of
boring bars made from unidirectional CFRP,
four types of different shapes of steel core were
considered.
Type p
In the case of a Type P boring bar, a steel pipe
was used as the center core of the bar (as
shown in Fig. 5(a)) since lubricant is often used
during the cutting operation. The outer diam-
eter of the pipe is 15 mm while inner diameter
is 8 mm. This steel pipe core is also useful to
give an accurate diameter of the bar by machin-
ing after fabricating the bar in an auto clave
using unidirectional prepreg.
The effect of shear deformation is appreci-
able when the cantilever beam bar is relatively
short since the shear modulus of CFRP is over
100 times lower than the longitudinal modulus
of CFRP. It is expected that this small center
core cannot restrict shear deformation due to
the cutting and radial forces.
Type v
In order to improve the bending stiffness, addi-
tional deformation due to shear deformation of
CFRP layers should be reduced. For such a
requirement, different types of steel core were
534 S. Nuguno et al.

considered. Near the neutral axis of a beam, the
shear stress becomes high when the beam is
subjected to not only a bending moment but
also a shear force. Therefore, if a material with
a high shear rigidity is used as the center plate
core of the composite bar, the total deflection
of the bar can be reduced. Figure 5(b) shows a
Type V CFRP composite boring bar with a
2 mm center plate core embedded in the verti-
CFRP
cal plane. The vertical plate is effective for the
shear deformation due to cutting force.
Type H
Type H CFRP composite boring bar has a
2 mm center plate core horizontally embedded.
The horizontal plate is effective for shear defor-
mation due to the radial force. Usually, the
radial force is smaller than the cutting force.
Figure 5(c) shows Type H bar. This bar is made
by rotating the Type V bar on its longitudinal
axis by 90.

Type V and Type H bars can constrain only

unidirectional shear deformation. However, two
plates should be used in both directions as the
core of a composite bar if both forces are rela-
/ tively large. For such a case, a cross-shaped
(a) Type P steel core as shown in Fig. S(d) must be effect-
ive even if the total weight of the bar is
&FRP sacrificed to some extent.

FEM ANALYSIS

The bending stiffness and the first resonant fre-

quency of all types of CFRP boring bars were
/Steel core calculated by FEM analysis using SDRC
l-DEAS.
(b) Typev For a Type C boring bar, the stiffness is esti-
mated when the thickness of the steel core
CFRP varies. Figure 6 shows FE divisions for all bor-
ing bars. Both steel and cemented carbide
boring bars are also analyzed using the same FE
division of Type C. Solid elements having eight
nodes were used. Each node has three degrees
of translation. The material data for calculation
for composite bars are given in Table 1. These
/ Steel core values were estimated by material test. Bound-
(~1 Type H ary conditions of the FE model is shown in
Fig. 7. The overhang of the boring bars is
CFRP 224 mm and the diameter of the bars is 32 mm
(L/D = 7). All degrees of freedom of the sur-
face nodes contacting the internal surface of the
boring bar holder are constrained, as shown by
the gray area in Fig. 7.

Bending stiffness

(4 Type C The bending stiffness of the composite bars is

Fig. 5. Constructions of CFRP boring bars. (a) Type P. (b) calculated by concentrating a force on the node
Type V. (c) Type H. (d) Type C. located at the free edge of the boring bar when
 Development of a composite boring bar 535

(a) Type P CFFLP boring bar (b) Type V CFRP boring bar

0.80 I
01234 5670
Thickness of the steel part of
the CFRP boring bars, mm
Pig. 8. Relationship between the thickness of the steel
core of the CFRP boring bars and bending stiffness (Ll
D = 7).

CFRP, steel and cemented carbide bars at Ll

(c) TypeH CFRP boring bar (d) TypeC CFRP boring bar D = 7. The variation of bending stiffness with
Pig. 6. FE divisions of CFRP boring bars. (a) Type P respect to core thickness is also given for a
CFRP boring bar. (b) Type V CFRP boring bar. (c) Type Type C boring bar. The ordinate is normalized
H CFRP boring bar. (d) Type C CFRP boring bar. by that of the steel boring bar.
If a whole bar is made of CFRP instead of
set-up as a cantilever beam in the vertical direc- steel, the tensile stiffness or bending stiffness
tion. under a pure bending moment would be 160%
Figure 8 shows a comparison of bending stiff- (320 GPa) higher than those of steel. However,
ness in the direction of cutting force among the bending stiffness under both bending
moment and shear force becomes 87% of that
lhble 1. Material properties of the CFRP used in FEM
for the steel boring bar. Use of CFRP does not
analysis
always increase the bending stiffness of canti-
Youngs modulus EX EZ
E, lever beam bars. The reason of this low stiffness
@Pa)
was explained in the above section. From Fig. 8,
6.85 6.85 320 even a 1 mm thick cross-shaped steel core is
Shearing modulus GYZ GLX effective to constrain shear deformation. Up to
@Pa) 6 mm, the bending stiffness of the composite
0.533 2.54 2.54 bar increases with increasing thickness. Shear
Poisson ratio % YYZ V7X
deformation is much constrained with increas-
0.23 0.004 0.004
ing thickness of the steel core, but a thicker
core also reduces the bending stiffness more,
due to the low Youngs modulus of steel. The
maximum increase in bending stiffness is
around 20% using CFRP. The Type H com-
bination has a lower bending stiffness than that
of the steel bar since the steel plate core does
not constrain the shear deformation of CFRP
layers in the Y-Z plane. For a Type P boring
bar, the bending stiffness is only 4% as high as
that of the steel bar. The difference in bending
stiffness between a Type P bar and steel
becomes less with a decrease of L/D.Finally,
224 140 the bending stiffness for a Type P bar becomes
420
lower than that of the steel bar. The Type V bar
has a similar stiffness to Type C bar since the
Fig. 7. Boundary conditions of the FEM models. core plate vertically aligned is effective in con-
536 S. Nugunoet al.

straining shear deformation of CFRP layers in
the Y-Z plane. On the other hand, the cemen-
ted carbide boring bar has a bending stiffness
2.37 times higher than that of the steel boring
bar. One resolution to improve the bending
stiffness is to use carbon fibers with a higher
Youngs modulus. Although some fibers have
Youngs modulus higher than 1000 GPa, they
are not yet commercially available.
Resonant frequency
Modal analysis of the models was also con-
ducted to estimate the first resonant frequencies
of the bars (bending mode I). In Fig. 9, a com-
parison of the first resonant frequency for
CFRP, steel and cemented carbide bars at Ll
D = 7 is given. The variation of the first
resonant frequency with respect to core thick-
ness is also given for the Type C boring bar.
The ordinate is normalized by that of the steel
boring bar as well as in Fig. 9.
In contrast to bending stiffness, the resonant
frequencies of CFRP boring bars are always
higher than that for the steel bar. They are also
comparable to the resonant frequency of the
cemented carbide bar because the composite
bars are one third to one quarter lighter than
the steel bar. The cemented carbide bar has a
higher bending stiffness but it is extremely
heavy. From a viewpoint of resonant frequen-
cies, high performance of CFRP boring bar can
be expected. It is obvious that the first resonant
frequency increases once with increasing in
thickness and then it decreases from the Type C
bar result. The maximum increase in resonant
frequency is about 30% at 2 mm thickness while
for bending stiffness, the maximum gain is
obtained at 6-7 mm. In the present study, the
thickness of all steel plate cores is 2 mm as it is
expected that the resonant frequency is effective
for the chattering stability.
CUTTING EXPERIMENTS
Cutting experiments were conducted to evaluate
cutting performance and stability against chat-
tering for CFRP bars (Type P, Type V, Type C,
Type H and Type C) as well as conventional
steel and cemented carbide bars. The diameter
of all bars is 32 mm. A conventional lathe (not
a NC lathe) was used for the tests. Here, all
boring bars were fixed using the specially
devised bar holder to provide equal conditions
of holding in the tool fixture as shown in
Fig. 10. An overhang of 224 mm gives an L/
D = 7. Thick cylindrical pipes (inner diameter:
60 mm, outer diameter: 100 mm) whose
material was mild steel were used as a work-
piece for the tests. Before the cutting
experiment, the surface of the workpiece was
smoothed to give a constant testing condition.
Two tiny accelerometers were attached on the
cutting head near the cutting edge to measure
accelerations in the tangential and radial direc-
tions during the cutting operation. Cutting
conditions are given in Table 2.
As noise occurs and chatter marks can be
distinguished on the cutting surface of the
workpiece when chattering occurs, it is easy to
identify whether chattering has occurred or not.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Cutting limits for all boring bars are plotted on

a feed-cutting depth map (Fig. 11) at L/D = 7.

- 0 Type H boring bal

Type P boring bar

Workpiece Screw of
t Boring bar
E 1.10 -
T tooi post
holder
E
Steel boring bar \ .\
s 1.00
s! Boring bar
jJ 0.90 /
ii 0 1 234 56 70
Thickness of the steel part of
the CFRP boring bars, mm
Fig. 9. Relationship between the thickness of the steel
core of the CFRP boring bars and first resonant frequency
(LID = 7). Fig. 10. System for cutting test.
 Development of a composite boring bar 537

Table 2. Cutting conditions in the measurement
Revolution Cutting
(rpm) depth
(mm)
630 0.4
0.2
500 0.4
0.2
As before mentioned, the steel bar was not able
to cut without chattering when the L/D value
was greater than 4. Even when L/D was smaller
than 4, it was difficult for the steel bar to cut
without chattering under several conditions. No
marks in the figure mean that smooth cutting
without chattering was not attained for the
corresponding bars. Therefore, a mark for the
steel bar cannot be found in this figure. It is
found that the Type C CFRP bar has excellent
performance. Although the cemented carbide
sometimes attained smooth cutting at lighter
conditions than those for the Type C bar, even
at L/D = 7, it was not always stable. Once chat-
tering occurred, it did not stop for the
cemented carbide bar while the Type C CFRP
bar was always stable. Good stability and
cutting performance could not be obtained for
both Types V and H bars. In particular, the
Type V bar shows a high bending stiffness
almost equal to the Type C bar and the first
resonant frequency is higher than that of the
Type C bar in the cutting force direction. How-
ever, the bending stiffness of the Type V bar in
the radial force direction is equal to the bend-
ing stiffness of the Type H bar and it is much
lower than that of the Type C bar. It is shown
0.8
E 0.6
S-
8 0.4
.-@
2 0.2
that the bending stiffness in the radial force
Feed direction is also as important as the bending
(mm/rev) stiffness in the cutting force direction.
Figures 12 and 13 show the dynamic response
0.3 for Type C CFRP and steel bars during cutting
:*:
operation. Parts (a) are the acceleration-time
0:2 history plots, parts (b) are the power spectra for
0.3 trace (a) and parts (c) are the Lissajious plots
0.2
of acceleration in X and Y directions. It must be
::: noted that the surface of the workpiece cut by
the steel boring bar was extremely rough and
chattering occurred. Even for the Type C bar,
oscillation occurred but the magnitude of oscil-
lation is much smaller than that for the steel
bar. The period of the main oscillation corre-
sponds to the first resonant frequency for both
cases.
Here, the maximum acceleration of Type C
and steel bars are 11 and 280 G and the fre-
quency of oscillation for the bars are 500 and
375 Hz, respectively. Maximum displacement of
the cutting edge of the Type C and steel bars
are calculated as 0.011 and 0.43 mm, respec-
tively, from eqn (4). It is found that the
machined surface cut by the Type C bar is
acceptable for the roughness and dimensional
accuracy. However, it is realized that the maxi-
mum displacement of the cutting edge of the
steel bar is larger than cutting depth and the
cutting edge was beating the surface of the
workpiece. In this point, the advantage for chat-
tering stability of the Type C bar is obvious.
Although the Type C bar has a high cutting
ability and chattering stability as above, it has
no problem entirely. From Fig. 12(b) and
Fig. 13(b), the resonant frequency for the Type
C bar is higher than that for the steel bar. How-
ever, an increase of the resonant frequency is
not remarkable, as expected in Fig. 9. No
apparent reasons could be found for this dis-
crepancy. Holding CFRP boring bars tightly is a
problem and this could be one of reasons for
the above discrepancy. The method for holding
0 Type C boring bar
rD Type V boring bar
the bar must be considered in the near future as
well as how to attach the cutting head to the
9 Type H boring bar
0 Type P boring bar bar. Surface protection for lubricant and tips is
e Cemented carbide
boring bar
also one of issues to be considered for practical
0 Steel boring bar use.

CONCLUSIONS
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 Nomarkmeans
impossible to cutting
Feed, mm/rev 1. A boring bar made from unidirectional
Fig. 11. Cutting limit of the boring bars. CFRP which has a high stability against chat-
538 S. Nuguno et al.

tering under severe conditions at L/D = 7

was successfully developed.
2. The cross-shaped steel core embedded
CFRP boring bar can constrain shear defor-
mation and improves the equivalent bending
stiffness of the boring bar.
3. An optimized cross-shaped steel core
improves the dynamic characteristics of the
total structure of the boring bar.
4. Compared with the cemented carbide boring
bar, chattering can be completely suppressed,
even in the range of L/D ratios greater than
7.

-20 I I
0 20 40 60 80 100
Time, ms

(a) Acceleration - Time history

12

10

-ml I
0 20 40 60 60 100
Time,ms

(a) Acceleration - Time history

300 ,
250

0 _..J L u 200
0 500 1000 1500 2000
.g 150
Frequency, Hz %
h
100
(b) Power spectrum for (a) 4
50

20 0 500 1000 15CiJ 2000

Frequency.Hz
15
(b) Power spectrum for (a)
10
4001
0
s 5
E 200
E O (3
s
s
8 -!j E
!! 0
s!
a -10
3
-15 4 -200

-20
-20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20
-200 0 200 400
Acceleration, G Acceleration, G
Fig. 12. Dynamic response for the Type C CFRP boring Fig. 13. Dynamic response for the steel boring bar
bar (630 rpm, cutting depth = 0.4 mm, feed = 0.3 mm/rev): (630 rpm, cutting depth = 0.4 mm, feed = 0.3 mm/rev): (a)
(a) acceleration-time history, (b) power spectrum for (a), acceleration-time history, (b) power spectrum for (a), (c)
(c) Lissajious plot of acceleration in X and Y directions. Lissajious plot of acceleration in X and Y directions.
 Development of a composite boring bar 539

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1. Hoshi, T., Vibration ana&is of mechanical cutting,
Kegyo Chasakai Publishing Co. Ltd, 1990.
2. Takeyama, H. et al., J. Japan Sot. precision engng,
48(12) (1982) 1628.
engng, SO(5) (1984) 860.
4. Kitajima, K. et al., J. Japan Sot. precision engng, 53(10)
(1987) 1582.
5. Merritt, H. E. Trans. ASME, Ser: B, 87(4) (1965) 27.