Drilling Advanced Aircraft Structures with PCD (Poly-Crystalline Diamond) Drills

With the increased usage of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics (CFRP) in the newest generation of commercial aircraft, the opportunity for using PCD drills has also increased. PCD has long been the preferred solution for the drilling of CFRP. However, given the manufacturing demands of commercial aircraft, a single drilling solution would be required to drill all possible material stack combinations which include CFRP stacked with aluminum (Al) and CFRP stacked with titanium (Ti). All of these possible combinations must be drilled with accuracy, excellent surface finish, minimal coolant usage and minimal exit burr, over the course of thousands of holes in the least amount of time possible. Precorp Inc. has developed a PCD drill that successfully drills all possible stack combinations while meeting the quality criteria. This drill is referred to as the 86 series PCD drill. The 86 series has been applied to an automated drill/fastening system as well as pneumatic power feed applications for the hole generation in CFRP, CFRP/Ti and CFRP/Al stacks.