Investigation on glass/epoxy composite surfaces machined by abrasive water jet machining

Experimental investigations were conducted to assess the influence of abrasive water jet machining (AWJM) process parameters on surface roughness (Ra) of glass fibre reinforced epoxy composites. The approach was based on Taguchi's method and analysis of variance (ANOVA) to optimize the AWJM process parameters for effective machining. It was found that the type of abrasive materials, hydraulic pressure, standoff distance and traverse rate were the significant control factors and the cutting orientation was the insignificant control factor in controlling the Ra. For noise factors effect, the forms of glass fibres and thickness of composite laminate showed the greatest influence on Ra. A Mathematical model was developed using piecewise linear regression analysis to predict the performance of Ra in terms of the cutting parameters of AWJM. The models successfully predicted the Ra of an AWJ machined glass/epoxy laminate within the limit of this study. Verification of the improvement in the quality characteristics has been made through confirmation test with respect to the chosen reference parameter setting. It was confirmed that the determined optimum combination of AWJM parameters satisfy the real need for machining of glass fibre reinforced epoxy composites in practice.

[1]  Constantina Lekakou,et al.  Compression and microstructure of fibre plain woven cloths in the processing of polymer composites , 1998 .

[2]  William Y. Fowlkes,et al.  Engineering Methods for Robust Product Design: Using Taguchi Methods in Technology and Product Development , 1995 .

[3]  Dwayne Arola,et al.  The influence of abrasive waterjet cutting conditions on the surface quality of graphite/epoxy laminates , 1994 .

[4]  Janakarajan Ramkumar,et al.  Effect of workpiece vibration on drilling of GFRP laminates , 2004 .

[5]  G. Choi,et al.  Process analysis and monitoring in abrasive water jet machining of alumina ceramics , 1997 .

[6]  Dwayne Arola,et al.  A study of kerf characteristics in abrasive waterjet machining of graphite/epoxy composite , 1996 .

[7]  Jun Wang,et al.  A study of abrasive waterjet cutting of metallic coated sheet steels , 1999 .

[8]  Elias Siores,et al.  Kerf characteristics in abrasive waterjet cutting of ceramic materials , 1996 .

[9]  Catherine A. Ploskonka,et al.  Fundamentals of Composites Manufacturing: Materials, Methods, and Applications , 1989 .

[10]  H. Hocheng,et al.  Feasibility Study of Abrasive-Waterjet Milling of Fiber-Reinforced Plastics , 1997 .

[11]  Ranjit K. Roy,et al.  Design of Experiments Using The Taguchi Approach: 16 Steps to Product and Process Improvement , 2001 .

[12]  M. Hashish,et al.  Advances in composite machining with abrasive-waterjets , 1991 .

[13]  Elizabeth A. Peck,et al.  Introduction to Linear Regression Analysis , 2001 .