Exploring the effectiveness of a self-defined virtual cutting method with a “soft knife”

For so many years, virtual manufacturing has been regarded as an important tool for machining path planning. Without a doubt, this tool could also be used for abrasive water jet cutting process. However, different from a rigid knife, abrasive water jet (AWJ) is a soft knife. Its edge pattern is changing as the process parameters change. Therefore, the traditional virtual manufacturing method, which is very effective for a hard knife manufacturing, could not be used directly in simulating the cutting process with a soft knife. A new virtual cutting method, in which the edge pattern of the knife is changing dynamically, has been explored in this paper. To verify the effectiveness of this new method, the virtual cutting results have been compared with the real cutting results. Based on the verification, the new method presented in this paper is very helpful in correcting the shape errors showed in real cutting process.