Estimation of Optimal Process Parameters for Abrasive Water Jet Machining Of Marble Using Multi Response Techniques

Abstract

Abrasive water jet machining has proven to be an effective non-Traditional machining technique which is used for cutting wide range of difficult to machine materials and obscure geometric profile. However, due to deprived surface quality there arises a need for post processing operations. Therefore, it is of prime importance to optimize the process parameter to obtain good surface finish economically. In the present work, machining parameters such as water jet pressure, stand-off distance (SOD) and transverse speed were optimized by considering multiple performance characteristics such as high material removal rate (MRR), good surface finish (Ra) and minimum kerf Angle (Ka). The experiments were designed using Taguchi’s Design of experiments and carried out on marble for each combination of (L27) orthogonal array. The optimal combinations of machining parameters were obtained using Taguchi Weightage method and Grey Relational Analysis. In general, both the analysis reveals that, material removal rate (MRR), surface roughness (Ra) and kerf Angle (Ka) is significantly affected by Transverse speed and Water jet pressure. Experimental results have shown that the output parameters have been improved considerably using this approach.