5th International & 26th All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference (AIMTDR 2014) December

12th–14th, 2014, IIT

Guwahati, Assam, India
 
PARAMETRIC STUDIES OF ABRASIVE WATER JET CUTTING ON
SURFACE ROUGHNESS OF SILICON NITRIDE MATERIALS

Debasish Ghosh1, Probal K. Das2, B.Doloi3*

1 NeotiaInstituteof Technology Management & Science, Diamond Harbour, West

[email protected]
2 Central Glass & Ceramic Research Institute, Kolkata-700032, [email protected]
3* Jadavpur University, Kolkata-700032, [email protected]
Abstract

Abrasive Waterjet Cutting [AWJC] is a rapidly developing technology that is used in industry for a number of
applications including plate profile cutting and machining of a range of materials [1]. It has various distinct
advantages over the other non-traditional cutting technologies, such as no thermal distortion, high machining
versatility, minimum stresses on the work piece, high flexibility and small cutting forces. Dense Si3N4, is one of the
very hard ceramic materials, used for both room and high temperature structural application, was machined by
Abrasive water jet machining technique using Silicon carbide grits (80 B.S.) in place of commercially used garnet
sand. Water pressure, abrasive flow rate, traverse speed and standoff distance were varied between 5000-6000 bar at
250 bar interval, 10gm/min-20gm/min at an 2.5gm/min interval, Traverse speed and Standoff distance varied
between 1mm/min - 7mm/min at an interval of 1.5mm/min and 4mm-16mm at an interval of 3mm respectively.

Keywords: Si3N4, Abrasive Water jet, Surface Roughness

1 Introduction
Structural materials can be classified into three Si3N4is also not very economic. So it is very important
types Metals, Ceramics & Polymers. Machining of to identify the influence of the different machining
those materials has its own advantages and parameters to reduce the loss of the resources like Si3N4
limitations[1]. Metals are easy to machine with different materials, abrasives and power etc.
conventional processes, polymers are easy to fabricate
but cannot sustain in higher temperature (>3000C). 2 Fabrication and Properties of Si3N4
Ceramics like Al2O3 or Si3N4 [2] are formed in high Wet mixing of Si3N4 powder (UBE chemicals,
temperature, can also sustain in higher temperature but Japan, Grade E-10), Y2O3 (Indian rare earths, Alleppey,
very difficult to machine with conventional processes. India), SiO2andAlN (H.C.Starck, Germany) has been
In this experiment abrasive water jet, a non- carried outby Attrition mixing [4]processfor
conventional machining process has been introduced for homogeneous mixing in Isopropanol medium. At the
machining of hard & brittle ceramic materials like time of attrition, few grams of Alumina balls of 3mm
Silicon Nitride (Si3N4)[3]. diameter, preferred to keep in that slurry for better
mixing. It can be kept at 70-800C for 2-3 hrs to dry
In 1979 Dr. Mohamed Hashish invents the process completely. After drying the powder is needed to sieve
of adding abrasives to a standard waterjet. After testing to separate the Alumina balls from the powder
a variety of options, he settled on garnet, a substance composition. A Uniaxial pressing desired to make
commonly used on sandpaper. The ultra high pressure billets of exact 50mm × 25mm × 25mm size after
(UHP) abrasive waterjet can cut virtually any hard drying. Then the samples are taken to the cold Isostatic
material like composites. Eventually these non- pressing (CIP) at 150 MPa for better compaction and
traditional machining processes are very costly. better strength of the samples. Before CIP, the green
Abrasive water jet machining process is also considered samples are needed to keep within a soft vacuum packet
to be a costly process. Accordingly fabrication of

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PARAMETRIC STUDIES OF ABRASIVE WATER JET CUTTING ON SURFACE ROUGHNESS OF SILICON NITRIDE MATERIALS

 
so that the sample can be kept as formed as uni-axial Sl. Components Specification
pressed at the time of CIP within the oil medium. After No.
CIP sample taken for Sintering at 17500C (Furnace
Used- Astro Furnace, Thermal Technologies, USA) the 1 Cutting table 1m x 1m
total soaking time was 2hr at the highest temperature in
Nitrogen atmosphere. 2 Nozzle Tip diameter 0.76mm
Table 1 Physical and Mechanical properties of Si3N4
samples 3 Controller Siemens 802D
Average Average 4-point Average Senumerik
Density Flexural strength Hardness
(gm/cc) (MPa) (GPa) 4 Pump KMT streamline pro-I-
60S. 60HP.
3.23 689.3 14.4
5 Abrasive Abraline III, KMT
feeder
3 Experimental Procedure
Before experimentation a trial and error method was 6 RO unit Tharmax 500LPH
used to achieve nearer best input parameters. On the
basis of which the levels were considered for
experimentation, see Table 2. The samples were mounted in wooden blocks for
machining by AWJM (Nanojet 1212, assembled by
Table2 Process parameters and their levels Anjanitechnoplast, India). A 60 HP pump was used to
considered for experimentation generate the required pressure (Maximum 6200bar,
Symbol Abbre Streamline Pro, KMT, Germany), machining process
L1 L2 L3 L4 L5
s viation
was numerically controlled by Siemens controller
A WP 5000 5250 5500 5750 6000 (802D SL Sinumeric, Siemens, Germany), 80 B.S. black
SiC particle was used as abrasive materials in place of
B AFR 10 12.5 15 17.5 20 commercially used garnet sand. In the experiment Water
pressure, abrasive flow rate, traverse speed and standoff
C TS 1 2.5 4 5.5 distance were varied between 5000-6000bar at 250bar
7 interval, 10gm/min-20gm/min at an 2.5gm/min interval,
D SOD 4 7 10 13 16 1mm-7mm at an interval of 1.5mm and 4mm-16mm at
an interval of 3mm respectively according to the design.
The tungsten carbide focusing tube of internal diameter
Where, was 0.76mm, which was used for continuous 10
A = Water Pressure, in Bar, B= Abrasive flow operations each to minimize the effect of incremental
rate in gm/min, C= Traverse speed (Axis movement) nozzle diameter by SiC particle abrasives. The sequence
in mm/min, D= Standoff distance in mm.  of machining operation was programmed by a CAM
software (Meta CAM-3D, USA). The Surface roughness
(Ra) was measured by a non-contact type profiler
(Bruker, USA).

4 Results & Discussions

Surface roughness is one of the most important criteria,

which help us determine how rough a workpiece material
is machined. In all the investigations it was found that the
machined surface is smoother near the jet entrance and
gradually becomes rougher towards the jet exit. This is
due to the fact that as the particles moves down they
loose their kinetic energy and their cutting ability
Fig.1 Abrasive Water Jet Machine installed at deteriorates. By analyzing the experimental data of all the
C.G.C.R.I., Kolkata selected materials, it has been found that the optimum
Table3 Specification of the components of AWJM selection of the four basic parameters, i.e., water
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5th International & 26th All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference (AIMTDR 2014) December 12th–14th, 2014, IIT
Guwahati, Assam, India
 
pressure, abrasive mass flow rate, nozzle traverse speed abrasives collide among themselves and loose their
and nozzle standoff distance are very important on kinetic energy. It is evident that the surface is smoother
controlling the process outputs such as surface near the jet entrance and gradually the surface
roughness. The effect of each of these parameters is roughness decreases towards the jet exit. The effect of
studied while keeping the other parameters considered in abrasive flow rate on surface roughness is shown in
this study as constant. The following discussion uses the fig.2 (b)
experimental data at the center of the cut for each
specimen and the surface roughness is assessed based on
the center-line average Ra.

4.1 Effect of Water Pressure on surface

roughness

Fig 2 (b) Surface Roughness Vs Abrasive Flow Rate

Fig2 (a) Surface Roughness Vs Water Pressure

4.3 Effect of Traverse Speed on Surface
The influence of water pressure on the surface roughness
roughness is shown in fig.2 (a). Jet pressure plays an
important role in surface finish. As the jet pressure Traverse speed didn't show a strong influence on surface
increases, surface becomes rougher. With increase in jet roughness. For decreasing of the machining costs every
pressure, brittle abrasives break down into smaller ones user try to choose the feed rate of the cutting head as
which again corrode the inner surface of the material. high as possible, but increasing the traverse speed
As a result of reduction of size of the abrasives the always causes increasing of inaccuracy and surface
surface becomes rougher. Though, due to increase in jet roughness. But with increase in work feed rate the
pressure, the kinetic energy of the particles increases surface roughness increased. This is due to the fact that
which ought to results in smoother machined surface. as the nozzle moves faster, less number of particles are
available that pass through a unit area. Therefore, less
number of impacts and cutting edges are available for
non uniform cut on the surface. Finally the generartion
4.2 Effect of Abrasive Flow Rate on of a rougher surface.The relationship between the
surface roughness traverse speed and the surface roughness is shown in
fig. 2(c).On the other hand as the nozzle traverse speed
It needs a large number of impacts per unit area under a is high so the abrasive water mixture is getting very less
certain pressure to overcome the bonding strength of time to penetrate with maximum pressure. This could
any material. With the increase in abrasive flow rate, cause serrations shown in fig 3.Which indicates the
surface roughness decreases. This is because of more rough surface?
number of impacts and cutting edges available per unit
area with a higher abrasive flow rate. Abrasive flow rate
determines the number of impacting abrasive particles
as well as total kinetic energy available. Therefore,
higher abrasive flow rate, higher should be the cutting
ability of the jet. But for higher abrasive flow rate,
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PARAMETRIC STUDIES OF ABRASIVE WATER JET CUTTING ON SURFACE ROUGHNESS OF SILICON NITRIDE MATERIALS

 
The present study includes the parametric influences on
surface finish during abrasive water jet cutting of silicon
nitride ceramics. The process parameters are varied
according to the statistical design during
experimentation. The experimental results are observed
and discussed in the present work.

From the parametric studies on surface roughness (Ra)

of cut edge, it is observed that the better surface finish
(Ra) 0.2921µm is obtained at 5000 bar Water pressure,
20gm/min abrasive flow rate, 1mm/min traverse speed
and 4mm standoff distance. 3D topography of cut
surface of Silicon Nitride work piece is shown in figure
3.From that fig it is clearly visible that the serrations are
much higher towards the opposite surface of the water
and abrasive mass flow because of the loss of the kinetic
energy.
Fig 2 (c) Surface Roughness VsTraverse Speed

4.4Effect of Standoff Distance on Surface

Slicing channel
roughness
Surface roughness increase with increase in standoff
distance. This is shown in fig. 2(d).

Slicing direction

Fig 3:3D topography of Si3N4 samples

5 Conclusions

Experimental investigations have been carried

for the surface roughness in abrasive waterjet cutting of
ceramics. The effects of different operational
Fig 2 (d) Surface Roughness VsStandoff Distance parameters such as: pressure, abrasive mass flow rate,
traverse speed and nozzle standoff distance on surface
Generally, higher standoff distance allows the jet to roughness have been investigated.
expand before impingement which may increase As a result of this study, it is observed that
vulnerability to external slog from the surrounding these operational parameters have direct effect on
environment. Therefore, increase in the standoff surface roughness. An increase in water pressure is
distance results an increased jet diameter as cutting is associated with anincrease in surface roughness.
initiated and in turn, reduces the kinetic energy of the jet Machining with 5000 bar pressure is basically a high
at impingement. So surface roughness increase with pressure operation. These results indicate that the use of
increase in standoff distance. It is desirable to have a high water pressure is preferred to obtain good surface
lower standoff distance which may produce a smoother finish. Surface roughness constantly decreases as mass
surface due to increased kinetic energy. The machined flow rate increases. It is recommended to use more mass
surface is smoother near the top of the surface and flow rate to decrease surface roughness. Among the
becomes rougher at greater depths from the top surface. process parameters considered in this study water
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5th International & 26th All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference (AIMTDR 2014) December 12th–14th, 2014, IIT
Guwahati, Assam, India
 
pressure and abrasive mass flow rate have not the
similar effect on surface roughness. As nozzle traverse
speed increase, surface roughness increases. This means
that low traverse speed should be used to have more
surface smoothness but is at the cost of sacrificing
productivity. This experimental study has resulted
surface smoothness increase as standoff distance
decreases. Therefore to achieve an overall cutting
performance, low standoff distance should be selected.

6 References:

Dechang,Yingfeng, Boyang, Yu, (2010)

Characterization of porous silicon nitride/silicon
oxynitride composite ceramics produced by sol
infiltration. Materials Chemistry and Physics
124 pp.97–101.

Yongfeng, Yu-P., Dongliang ,(2009) Dielectric

and mechanical properties of Si3N4 ceramics
prepared via low temperature. Ceramic
International 35 pp1699-1703

EngidaL,Rowan D et al Maximum Depth of cut

and other performance characteristics of the
AWJ oscillation cutting process of ductile
materials.Unknown source

AmbujS.andPaulS., (2007) Numerical

modelling of kerf geometry in abrasivewater jet
machining. Int. J. Abrasive Technology, Vol. 1,
No. 2,

J. Wang, (2009) A new model for predicting the

depth of cut in Abrasive water jet contouring of
alumina ceramics.Journal of material
processing technology 209 pp2314-2320.

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