Trusted by leading aerospace and automotive manufacturers to cut costs and improve yield through process-optimised drilling.
Exactaform CFRP drills are engineered around your actual material and stack-up. We design each geometry to control thrust, protect fibres, and deliver repeatable hole quality.
As there’s no such thing as a truly “standard” composite drill and we treat CFRP as a new material every time we work with it.
That’s why the majority of our CFRP drills are application-led and designed for your process. However when speed matters, we also carry a range of off-the-shelf solutions based on proven geometries for common CFRP materials so you can move quickly without compromising on performance.
Aerospace Sales Manager Martin Burns discusses the challenges of machining CFRP, how Exactaform partners with leading aerospace manufacturers, and where the industry is heading next.
If we determine that your application requires a specialised CFRP drill, our process is built around understanding how your material behaves, how the stack layers interact, and what your tolerance and lifecycle targets are. From there, we engineer the drill geometry, validate it in your set-up, and only then lock the specification for consistent supply.
Send us your drawing and laminate/stack details, including hole sizes, tolerances, fibre orientations, resin systems, and stack order if metals are involved. The more complete the picture, the faster we can design the right tool.
Our design team will review your application and propose an optimised drill geometry, complete with recommended baseline parameters (speed, feed, coolant strategy). At this stage, you’ll see how the tool design directly addresses challenges like delamination, ovality, or burrs.
We supply a pilot batch of drills for trials. Our applications engineers work alongside your team during prove-out - capturing thrust, hole quality, and life data. Adjustments are fine-tuned until we hit capability (Cp/Cpk) and sign-off requirements.
Once proven, we lock the specification. This ensures every tool you receive matches the validated geometry and process. Metric and imperial sizes are available to align with your drawings and fixtures.
Finally, we establish a supply plan that fits your production rhythm - whether that’s kanban, consignment, or scheduled shipments. As volumes ramp, you can rely on consistent performance, retip/regrind support, and rapid replacements to keep your lines running.
A portfolio developed specifically for aerospace machining. These drills are built to handle the demands of CFRP laminates, aluminium skins, and titanium stack-ups found across modern aircraft structures.
While most CFRP applications demand bespoke geometries, we also maintain a range of proven, off-the-shelf drills. These tools are built on geometries that have already delivered stable results across common CFRP stack-ups, making them ideal for rapid trials, spares, or when lead times are tight. Off-the-shelf doesn’t mean compromise - you still get cutting strategies designed for composites, but without the wait for a tailored solution.