ABRASIVE JET MACHINING

(AJM)

By
Hassan El-Hofy
Professor
College of Engineering, Alexandria
University
AJM System
 Carrier Gas
 Nitrogen or CO2 or air is supplied under
pressure of 2-8 kg/cm2.
 Oxygen should never be used because it
causes a violent chemical reaction with the
workpiece chips or the abrasives.
 It is not practical to reuse the abrasive
powder because contaminations and worn
grit cause a decline of the machining rate
 Abrasives
 Aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and silicon
carbide (SiC) powders are used for
heavy cleaning, cutting, and deburring.
 Magnesium carbonate is recommended
for light cleaning and etching.
 Sodium bicarbonate is used for fine
cleaning and cutting of soft materials.
Abrasive Jet Machining
Terminology
Material Removal Rate
 Removal Rates
 Typical material removal rate is 16.4
mm3/min when cutting glass and for metals it
varies from 1.6-4.1 mm3/min.
 For harder ceramics; cutting rates are about
50 % higher than those for glass.
 The minimum width of cut is 0.13 mm.
Process Characteristics
 Abrasive Flow Rate

.
Removal rate

Abrasive flow rate

 Velocity of Particles
Removal rate

Velocity of particles
 Gas Pressure
Removal rate

Gas pressure
 Stand-off-Distance
Removal rate

Stand-off-distance
 Mixing Ratio
.
Volume flow rate of abrasive particles Qa
Vx  
Volume flow rate of carrier gas Qg
Removal rate

Mixing ratio
 Applications
 Drilling holes, cutting slots, cleaning hard surfaces, deburring,
polishing and radiusing.
 Deburring of cross holes, slots, and threads in small precision
parts that require a burr free finish such as hydraulic valves,
aircraft fuel systems and medical appliances.
 Machining intricate shapes or holes in sensitive, brittle, and thin
or difficult-to-machine materials.
 Insulation stripping and wire cleaning without affecting the
conductor.
 Micro-deburring of hypodermic needles.
 Frosting glass and trimming of circuit boards, hybrid circuit
resistors, capacitors, silicon and gallium
 Removal of films and delicate cleaning of irregular surfaces
because the abrasive stream is able to follow contours
 Advantages of AJM
 Best suited for machining brittle and heat sensitive
materials like glass, quartz, sapphire, ceramics, etc.
 Machining super alloys, ceramics, glass and
refractory materials
 Not reactive with any workpiece material.
 No tool changes are required.
 Intricate parts of sharp corners can be machined.
 Workpiece material does not experience hardening.
 No initial hole is required for starting of operation as
that required by wire EDM
 Material utilization is high.
 It can machine thin materials.
 Disadvantages of AJM
 Slow removal rate.
 Stray cutting can't be avoided (low accuracy ±0.1 mm).
 Tapering effect may occur specially when drilling in
metals.
 Abrasive may get impeded in the work surface.
 Suitable dust collecting systems should be provided.
 Soft materials can't be machined by the process.
 Silica dust may be a health hazard.
 Ordinary shop air should be filtered to remove moisture
and oil.
 Abrasive-Water Jet
Machining (AWJM)

By: Sarah Saeed Ahmed

17

01/27/22
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  A water cutter pressurizes a stream of pure
water flow (without abrasive) to cut materials
such as foam, rubber, plastic, cloth, carpet and
wood.
 Abrasive water jet cutters mix abrasive garnet
to a pressurized water stream to cut harder
materials. Examples are: stainless steel,
titanium, glass, ceramics, marble and granite.
 The abrasive water jet is hundreds, if not
thousands, of times more powerful than the
pure water jet.
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 What is the Abrasive Water
Jet Cutting Machine System?

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 Injection Jet
01/27/22 Suspension
22 Jet
 AWJ is the technology of using high
velocity coherent stream of water
and abrasives to cut almost all
materials.
 Water at 40,000 to 60,000 psi
accelerates through a sapphire, ruby
or diamond orifice. The stream
passes through a mixing region
where the vacuum, induced by the
stream, sucks in abrasive.
 The cutting stream (o.o2 in. to o.o6
in. diameter) carries 0.5 to 1.5
pounds per minute of abrasive.
 The quantity of abrasive is
dependent on the cutting stream
size, which is selected based on the
material to be cut.

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 Types of Abrasives
 Garnet the most commonly used abrasive.
 Olivine sand and silica sand.
 Aluminum oxide Al2O3 but it has been rarely
used.
 Size of Abrasive Particle
 Diameter = 90 – 250 µm
 Mesh #120, #80

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An abrasive water jet cuts through
356.6-mm-thick slabs of concrete or
76.6-mm-thick tool steel plates at 38
mm/min in a single pass.

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 Water-Jet pressure,
 Water-Jet diameter,
 Type and size of abrasives,
 Geometry of focusing tube,
 Hardness of work piece material,
 Stand of Distance (SOD),
 and Angle of cut.
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 Abrasive water-jet has the ability to cut
almost all materials and thickness, Its
flexibility makes it useful for all
applications, but of course some uses are
better than others. So it is used in
machining:-

 Al, Cu and its alloys, Mo, Ti, W and WC.

 Marble, granite, ceramics and glass.
 Composite materials.
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 No heat affected zone (HAZ).
 Low contact force of cutting stream.
 No distortion and warping.
 Burr-free
 Can cut any material and thickness
 “Cold Cut “ material characteristics are not changed
 Eliminates secondary operations.
 Achieves high accuracy’s of up to +/- 0.001.
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 The high rate of wear in some parts of
the machine due to the presence of
abrasives in water jet.
 The process is not environmentally
safe compared to WJM.

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