Machinability Indices of some Metallic Materials in Abrasive Waterjet Machining

Abrasive Waterjet Machining (AWJM) has significant advantages, such as being environmentally friendly, used for machining hard-to-cut materials, and do not cause a heat-affected zone. More machining tests are needed to understand the concept of material machinability in AWJM to increase process flexibility and produce parts with higher productivity, better accuracy, and surface quality. This paper presents drilling and slotting experiments through different metallic materials at fixed machining conditions to evaluate their machinability using AWJM. It introduces new machinability indices that arrange the tested materials concerning their machinability rating. Drilling indices include volumetric removal rate (VRR), penetration rate (PR), specific removal rate (SRR), and taper angle (TA). The paper correlates VRR, PR, drilling power, and Young’s modulus of the tested materials. In the case of slotting, VRR, kerf taper angle (TA), and the average surface roughness, Ra, were measured and used as indices of machinability. Cost analysis was also performed to introduce an economical index of machinability for both AWJ drilling and slotting AWJM operations.