Fluidised Bed Hot Abrasive Jet Machining of Borosilicate Glass with Zircon Sand

Abstract

Abstract Abrasive jet machining (AJM) is a non-conventional modern machining process which employs a high velocity mixture of a fluid (air or gas) with micro abrasive grains to impinge on the very hard and brittle target materials like glass, quartz, sapphire, and ceramics to cause material removal by impact erosion. This paper is focused on abrasive jet drilling of borosilicate glass material with different grades of hot zircon sand abrasive particles at various bed pressures of the compressed air to form the hot abrasive air jet, after passing through the fluidised bed abrasive jet machining (FB-AJM) setup. The effect of different machining parameters such as pressure (P), standoff distance (S), grain size (G), and temperature (T) on the material removal rate (MRR), surface roughness (Ra), and flaring diameter (FD) are studied and analysed by Box-Behnken method of response surface methodology (RSM). The SEM micrograph analysis of the machined glass surface is performed to show the plastic deformations at different planes of the work piece and also it is revealed that the embedment of abrasive particles on to the work material is reduced due to hot abrasive jet.