APPLICATION OF ABRASIVE WATER JET CUTTING TECHNOLOGY FOR PROFILE MACHINING OF TITANIUM PLATES - A CASE STUDY

摘要

The Abrasive Water Jet (AWJ) machining technology is a non conventional machining process which employs an extremely coherent jet of pressurized water with entrained abrasives for piercing and subsequent machining of materials. The abrasive water jet machining technology has the potential to open up avenues for re-engineering by way of substituting costly and time consuming conventional machining and finishing operations by a simple one stroke process and therefore it is distinctly advantageous over the traditional methods of machining such as milling, boring etc. All exotic and new materials can be cut with ease and with no heat affected zones as this cutting process does not involve application of heat. Materials that are resistant to heat and are thermally sensitive or non-conductive or reflective are all easily machined using the abrasive water jet machining process. This article discusses the techno-economic aspects involved in the profile machining of Titanium plates using AWJ machining process, giving a thrust to the significant advantages that it stands to offer in terms of cycle time of production of such difficult-to-machine materials.