One Step Precision Drilling and Countersinking of Composites

Precision drilling and countersinking in composites presents new challenges in Aircraft assembly. A new self feeding drilling system has been developed to drill superior hole and countersink quality and offer substantial savings in composite assembly.

The HP-Drilling system includes a drill motor with integrated vacuum, simplified and less costly template design and drill bits for CFRP and Aluminium stack- ups lasting 800 to 3000 holes. The automatic drilling feeder with an adapter is inserted manually into the drilling template bushing. After activating the starter button the drilling unit is locked in the template. A hollow piston compresses the components together before the drill bit advances with adjustable feed rate to drill the hole and countersink in one step (Figure 1).