ENHANCING THE DEPTH OF CUT IN ABRASIVE WATERJET CUTTING OF ALUMINA CERAMICS BY USING MULTIPASS CUTTING WITH NOZZLE OSCILLATION

摘要

An experimental investigation is presented to increase the depth of cut in abrasive waterjet (AWJ) cutting of alumina ceramics by introducing a new cutting technique combining multipass operations with controlled nozzle oscillation. Plausible trends of the depth of cut per pass and total depth of cut with respect to the number of passes and the parameters in each pass are discussed. It shows that cutting with nozzle oscillation can significantly increase the depth of cut in the single-pass cutting mode, while further gains in the depth of cut can be made by using multipass cutting with nozzle oscillation. While multipass cutting can be used to increase the total depth of cut for machining thicker materials, it has been found that an average increase of 50.8% in the total depth of cut can be expected by using multipass cutting with nozzle oscillation as compared to single-pass cutting without nozzle oscillation within the same cutting time. Recommendations are finally made as a practical guide for the selection of process parameters in multipass AWJ cutting of alumina ceramics with controlled nozzle oscillation.