Surface Integrity Analysis of Plain Waterjet Milled Advanced Engineering Composite Materials

Milling of advanced engineering composite materials (AECMs) by conventional methods is a difficult task due to non-homogeneous constituents, delamination, fiber pullout, carcinogenic gases. On the other hand, waterjet machining, among the non-conventional approaches, is a well proven technology for machining of a wide range of materials due to its unique features. By considering the limitations of the conventional milling tool path strategies for AECMs, various jet based strategies are considered by taking into account the less strength of composites in the transverse direction and aggressive nature of high energy waterjets. Surfaces generated by the above approaches are evaluated for their surface integrity and metrological aspects of the pockets.