Muhammad Hafizis an Application Specialist at Gandtrack Ltd which is the market leader in the design and manufacturer of specialist cutting tools for the composite specifically in Aerospace Industry. He has been with the company for more than 6 years. He is currently the Head of Research and Development team in Advanced Machining Lab which based in Malaysia and managing the work packages for Airbus A320, A320 and Boeing 787 assembly component. At Malaysia, he also involves with customer regarding on the quality issues and process development for a new project focusing on the optimum design cutter. He graduated from UniversitiSains Malaysia, with Bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering and Master in Mechanical Engineering specialized in a new method of composite manufacturing process in aircraft application. Recently, he just completed his doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from UniversitiSains Malaysia in cutter design optimization in modern aircraft drilling application. His main interests was the composite materials, processes and machining process.

Advanced composite materials have wide applications in aerospace, automotive, maritime and household products. In the new generation of aircraft design and development, more advanced composites material are used in commercial aircraft manufacturing due to its high strength- to- weight ratio property. For machining fiber-reinforced plastics such as Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) and Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic (GFRP) as well as difficult to machine materials such as Titanium and Inconel, Gandtrack Ltd has specially developed new tool solutions to address these specific requirements. The portfolio covers standard products made of Tungsten Carbide and Polycrystalline Diamond (PCD) tools and also customer-specific custom solutions. Nowadays, most part of the aircraft component is made in stack-up material that give challenges to the tool manufacturer in order to produce an optimize tool geometry for the specific machining process. The recent advancement in tool geometry optimization and coating application would increase the life span and indirectly would reduce the tool consumption.