Development of ice abrasive waterjet cutting technology

Abstract

Purpose: Abrasive water jet (AWJ) cutting uses mineral abrasive to cut practically all materials. In ice abrasive water jet (IAWJ) cutting, the ice particles are used as abrasive. IAWJ is under development with the aim to bridge the gap in productivity between the abrasive water jet (AWJ) and water jet (WJ) cutting. It is clean and environmentally friendlier in comparison with AWJ, while its cutting efficiency could be better than WJ. Design/methodology/approach: The main challenge is to provide very cold and thus hard ice particles in the cutting zone, thus cooling the water under high pressure is utilized. Further on, two approaches to obtain ice particles in the water are studied, namely generation of ice particles in the cutting head and generation of ice particles outside of the cutting head and adding them to the jet similar as in AWJ technology. In this process it is essential to monitor and control the temperature occurring in the system. Findings: To have ice particles with suitable mechanical properties in the cutting process, the water have to be precooled, ice particles generated outside the cutting head and later added to the jet. The results show that, contrary to the common believe, the water temperature is not significantly changed when passing through the water nozzle. Research limitations/implications: The presence of ice particles was only indirectly identified. In the future, a special high speed camera will be used to study the influence of process parameters on ice particle distribution. Practical implications: IAWJ technology produces much less sludge (waste abrasive and removed workpiece material mixed with water) than AWJ technology which is beneficial in e.g. disintegration of nuclear power plants. IAWJ technology has also great potential in the food and medical industries for applications, where bacteria growth is not desired. Originality/value: The paper presents the latest achievements of IAWJ technology.