INVESTIGATION OF MACHINABILITY AND GEOMETRY CHARACTERISTICS OF ABRASIVE WATERJET CIRCULAR CUTTING PROCESS ON Ti–6Al–4V ALLOY

Titanium alloy (Ti–6Al–4V) is one of the important alloys in titanium series used in various parts of the aerospace industry. The aim of this work is to investigate the effect of process parameters on Ti–6Al–4V to improve the machining, surface, and geometric characteristics of the circular cut profile by determining the optimum parameters for the abrasive waterjet machining (AWJM). The input parameters considered are the abrasive flow rate (AFR), stand-off distance (SOD), and traverse speed (TS). Output parameters like circularity, cylindricity, and surface roughness (SR) of the circular cut are evaluated. The experiments are conducted based on central composite design (CCD) in the response surface methodology (RSM). In this work, a new machining strategy has been reported for circular path cutting with start point at the center and end point at the perimeter. It is found that the circularity increases with the increase in TS and SOD, cylindricity increases with an increase in AFR, and TS and SR decrease with the increase in AFR and TS. Confirmation tests with optimum levels of parameters have been done to determine the adequacy of RSM. In addition to that, the cutting profiles are also analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Steinbichler Comet 3D Blue Light Scanner. It is found that the wear tracks, groove formation, plowing deformation, and embedded abrasive particles on a circular profile are minimized with the optimum parameter levels. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is used to verify the minimum SR value of 119.252nm in AWJ-machined surface.