Abrasive waterjets for micromachining can be generated by the entrainment method and by theabrasive suspension method. The development of an abrasive suspension valve allowssuspension systems to micromachine multiple features per second, making them the preferredoption for machining miniature components. Improvements to entrainment processes, to allowmicromachining with entrainment abrasive waterjets, can be exploited for general machining.The paper postulates that it should be possible to more than double the cutting performance ofabrasive entrainment cutting heads for general machining.It is predicted that the exploitation of micromachining systems, based on the abrasivesuspension method, will be carried out by companies not currently involved with abrasivewaterjets. Exploitation of micromachining systems, based on entrainment processes, is expectedto be by companies who already manufacture abrasive waterjets for the general machiningmarket.
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