Utilization of solid-cutting waste of granite as an alternative abrasive in abrasive waterjet cutting of marble

Abstract

Solid-cutting waste of granite is generated with considerable amounts during the machining processes. Utilization of this waste as an alternative material in various sectors such as construction and building would protect the environment and create a valuable source for the sectors. In this paper, an experimental study is carried out for the utilization of solid-cutting waste of granite as an abrasive material in abrasive waterjet (AWJ) cutting of marble. The solid-cutting waste of granite is downscaled with crushing and grinding. The obtained particles are then sieved in a range of size 150–300 μm. Some properties of the waste granite such as hardness and density are determined. Additionally, the cutting performance of the granite particles is compared to that of garnet based on some performance outputs including the cutting width, cutting depth, cutting-wear zone depth, kerf angle and surface roughness. During the cutting experiments, the cutting parameters are kept constant. Results show that the granite particles meet the requirements as an abrasive in the AWJ cutting of marble. It is revealed that the granite particles show similar performance with garnet in terms of the cutting width (granite: 2.10 mm and garnet: 2.21 mm) and the surface roughness (granite: 5.2 μm and garnet: 4.59 μm). It is determined that lower cutting depth (67% of the cutting depth produced by garnet, 15.62 mm) is obtained with the granite particles. Additionally, it is concluded that garnet produces lower kerf angles (70% and 79% of the kerf angle-access and kerf angle-exit produced by the granite particles, respectively). Finally, it can be noted that the granite particles can be effectively used in the cutting of marble and other rocks with similar density and hardness.