ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF WATER JET PARAMETERS ON THE PERFORMANCE DURING PREPARATION OF CUTTING TOOL EDGE BY FINE ABRASIVE WATER JET

摘要

Preparation of cutting tool edge using fine abrasive water jet (FAWJ) was proposed. A specific designed water jet machine tool with four axes was developed. Experiments on preparation of cutting edge of carbide chasers for petroleum steel pipes using FAWJ have been carried out. Taguchi test method was applied in design of experiments. The effects of process parameters on the radius of cutting edge as well as the surface roughness of the cutting tool were investigated and analyzed. Based on the range analysis, among the five process parameters selected, the traverse velocity of the FAWJ exhibits the greatest significance on the prepared cutting edge radius, followed by abrasive flow rate, size of abrasive, pressure and stand-off distance. Nevertheless the most significant impact factor of the designed parameters on the prepared surface roughness is abrasive flow rate, followed by the traverse velocity, stand-off distance, size of abrasive and water pressure. From the analysis of variance, the abrasive flow rate has the most significant impact on both the prepared cutting edge radius and the surface roughness. The traverse velocity also has important impact on the prepared cutting edge radius and the surface roughness.