4. Machining sandwich structures

The difficulty is even greater with this type of structure, since this time the skin laminate (fibers and resin) and the plastic foam or metal honeycomb, or even the wood panel, have to be cut at the same time.

Every type of material is different, and it is more than ever advisable to carry out some preliminary tests on material samples.

• The most frequent operation is the drilling of sandwich structures. In this case, it is necessary to drill successively the rigid skin, then the soft honeycomb core, then the rigid skin. For example, the same tool can be used to drill the laminated skin and the honeycomb core, but with different forces or speeds and feeds, or the drill bit can be changed after drilling the laminate, to drill the honeycomb thickness. When opening the 2nd skin, care must be taken not to delaminate it,...