Experimental investigations on pocket milling of titanium alloy using abrasive water jet machining

M Kanthababu,Nithin Emannuel,R Gokul,Rajes Ram,Radhik Rammohan

doi:10.5937/fmet1602133k

Abstract

Abrasive Water Jet Machining (AWJM) is one of the most popular unconventional machining processes used to machine difficult-to-machine materials. Apart from regular cutting, it is also used for turning, threading, slotting, milling, etc. This paper details the experimental investigations on Abrasive Water Jet Pocket Milling (AWJPM) on Titanium (Ti6Al4V) using garnet abrasive. The influence of waterjet pressure, step-over, traverse rate and abrasive mass flow rate were studied on the output responses such as depth of cut and surface roughness (Ra). The experiments were designed using L9 Orthogonal Array and ANOVA analysis helped in determination of significant process. ANOVA analysis on depth of cut indicated that step-over and traverse rate are the most significant process parameters. However, ANOVA analysis for surface roughness (Ra) was inconclusive and the significant process parameters could not be determined.

Highlights

Abrasive Water Jet Machining (AWJM) has received considerable attention from industries owing to its beneficial characteristics in machining various materials, difficult-to-machine and thermally sensitive materials [2]
Titanium was chosen as the workpiece as it is used for many industrial applications
The four input parameters that were varied at three levels are waterjet pressure, step over distance, traverse rate and abrasive mass flow rate (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

Abrasive Water Jet Machining (AWJM) has received considerable attention from industries owing to its beneficial characteristics in machining various materials, difficult-to-machine and thermally sensitive materials [2]. AWJM uses the mechanical energy of the high velocity jet of water and abrasive to achieve material removal by impact erosion. Many operations such as turning, threading, slotting and milling can be performed using AWJM. There has been a certain degree of research in the fields of slotting, turning using AWJM, but the studies related to milling using AWJM is very scarce [3]. If the depth of cut is controlled during the milling process, it is known as pocket milling. In abrasive water jet pocket milling (AWJPM), the waterjet is not allowed to pass all the way through the workpiece. The advantages of AWJPM are less burr information, minium thermal distortion, negligible tool wear, absence of tool breakage and tool deflection [2-9]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion