Abstract
Fiber-reinforced composite materials have been widely used in various sectors of industry. In many occasions, maching operations are required for product design, dimensional control and surface finish. Theseoperations include drilling, milling and turning etc. Mostly they are carried out in trial-and-error manner to achieve optimal production cycles. In this paper, a scientific investigation of maching characteristics in turning a carbon fiber-reintroduced epoxy tube is presented. The chip forms are observed and found to reveal fracture behavior in front of tool edge. Th cutting forces during turning are also examined and used for calculation of the specific cutting energy of this material, which is an important criterion showing the machinability of an engineering material, The attained surface finish is measured for different cutting conditionsm i.e. the cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut. The results of the current research are expected to promote the understanding of composite materials in maching operations anf to extend the application of these material.