PRECISION WATERJET CUTTING IN THE COMPOSITES INDUSTRY UTILIZING ROBOTS FOR HIGH QUALITY ACCURATE MACHINING

摘要

5 Axis Gantry robots and 6 axis Articulated arm robots have been used with plain waterjets for many applications especially in the automotive industry. This paper is on extending the use of these robots to abrasive waterjets and for a much wider range of applications primarily in the composites market. This paper discusses the cutting process of the ultra high pressure waterjet and its technical advantages over conventional mechanical cutting tools. The integration of the abrasive waterjet process on robotic arms has been successfully developed to address the end effector, supply of high pressure water and abrasives to the cutting head, and operational safety. Off line programming, calibration, and inspection are discussed. Advanced software packages typically used in the aerospace industry have been successfully adapted. A few case studies are presented in this paper addressing composite trimming for wing skins used in aircraft and wind turbines, small airframe composite parts, glass trimming for high efficiency solar panels, and three dimensional machining of relatively small parts used in jet engines.