Effects of tool wear indicators on delamination and surface roughness during CFRP edge trimming

Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP) are prone to inducing rapid tool wear during edge trimming, which concurrently blunts the cutting edge and aggravates delamination and surface roughness. To overcome the limitation that flank wear (VB) cannot fully capture geometric changes of edge blunting, this study introduces the wedge angle (θ) as a new geometry-based wear indicator. CFRP edge trimming experiments were conducted for synchronous in-situ tracking of θ, cutting edge radius (Re) and VB, with polynomial regression adopted to analyze their correlations with delamination and surface roughness. Results reveal θ and Re predominantly govern delamination depth (h) at 45° fiber orientation. When θ increases from 67.8° to 81.9°, and Re increases from 7.72 µm to 38.65 µm, h explodes from 107 µm to 598 µm. The polynomial model (R2 = 0.91–0.92) further discloses a negative θ-Re interaction: the sensitivity of h to θ is amplified as Re increases. Regarding surface roughness, VB remains the most predictor of (Sa), yet θ dominates the maximum valley depth (Sv) at 45° fiber orientation, with Sv escalating from 84 µm to 210 µm as wear progresses. The established θ-Re-h and VB-Sa relationships provide a quantitative basis for predicting delamination and surface roughness and offer experimental evidence and quantitative insights for high-precision CFRP edge trimming.