Experimental investigations of thermally enhanced abrasive water jet machining of hard-to-machine metals

This work explores thermally enhanced abrasive water jet machining (TEAWJM) process to improve the machining capabilities of conventional abrasive water jet machine by heating the work by an external heat source. The present work describes an experimental study of thermally enhanced machining (TEM) by adding an oxy acetylene gas welding setup as an external heat source to the machine setup which heats the work locally and temperature is measured by non-contact laser thermometer. The experimental data of cutting parameters at critical temperatures of hard-to-machine metals Inconel 718, Titanium (Ti6Al4V) and mild Steel (MS-A36) (ductile in nature) with full factorial DOE is presented here. Further, the effect of thermal treatment (during cutting) on surface morphology of the material machined has been studied for analyzing the effectiveness of the proposed methodology. Due to TEM, an increase in material removal rate, reduction in power consumption machining time is observed.