Abrasive water jet machining process parameters optimisation for machining of complex profiled component from Inconel 718 super alloys

Abstract

The demands for machining complex profile from difficult to machine materials find wide applications in various industries, that has been triggered the neck for development of advanced machining technologies, specifically non-conventional processes and associated optimisation of machining parameter. Keeping in view the applications of Inconel-718 material for aerospace applications, it has been selected as the specimen material for machining complex profiled component on KMT steam line SL-V50 water jet five axes CNC abrasive water jet machine (AWJM) at the research organisation. In the present work AWJM process parameters are optimised by Taguchi-Grey relational method on dimensions, geometries and surface roughness of complex curved contours. Additionally, the Pareto analysis of variance (ANOVA) of Grey relational grade is also applied to find the most significant process parameter. Traverse speed is found to be the most significant process parameter for profile cutting in AWJM, also confirmation experiments were conducted to validate the results. The experiment was done for a specified profile for cross sectional thickness of 6.6 mm and 18 sets of experiments were conducted based on stark's L18 orthogonal array.