Water Jet Machining (WJM) additionally known as water jet cutting, is a non-traditional machining process within which a high-speed jet of water is employed to get rid of materials from the surface of the piece of work.
WJM can be utilized to cut milder materials like plastic, elastic, or wood.
To cut more diligently materials like metals or rock, a grating material is blended in the water.
When an abrasive material is used in water for the machining process then it is called Abrasive Water Jet Machining (AWJM).
Working Principle:-
The water from the reservoir is charged to the intensifier with the assistance of a pump.
The intensifier builds the pressing factor of the water from 5 bars to 3000 to 4000 bar. This high pressing element water from the intensifier is carried to the nozzle along within the accumulator.
Fig. Water Jet Machining
The accumulator stores the high-pressure water associate provides it at any instant once it's needed. It is utilized to eliminate the fluctuation of the high-pressure requirement of machining hard material.
The high-pressure water is then passed to nowhere the high-pressure energy of the water is converted into kinetic energy A very high-velocity jet of water (1000 m/s) comes out through the nozzle within the variety of a narrow beam.
This high-velocity jet of water once strikes the surface of the piece of work, removes the material from it.
The water jet after machining it gets gathered by the drain and catcher system. Here the scrap, metal particles from the water is removed and it's provided to the reservoir tank.
Equipment's of WJM:-
The apparatus of water jet machining comprises of the following parts:
Reservoir: It is utilized for storing water that will be utilized in the machining operation.
Pump:It pumps the water from the reservoir. High-pressure intensifier pumps are utilized to compress the water as high as 55,000 psi. For the abrasive water jet, the working pressing factor goes from 31,000 to 37,000 psi. At this high pressing factor, the stream pace of the water is diminished extraordinarily.
Intensifier: It is connected to the pump. It compresses the water procured from the nozzle to the ideal level.
Accumulator:It is utilized for briefly putting away the compressed water.It is associated with the flow regulator through a control valve.
Control Valve:It controls the heading and pressing factor of compressed water that will be provided to the nozzle.
Flow regulator: It is utilized to regulate the flow of water.
Nozzle: It delivers the compressed water as a water jet at high speed. When the water is compressed, it is constrained through a sapphire nozzle which is made out of the normal sapphire stone because of the strength of the stone. The width of the nozzle can be differed relying on the application for which the water jet is being utilized. A harmed nozzle prompts helpless attachment of the stream, along these lines decreasing the cutting capacity significantly. The spout regularly keeps going 100 to 200 hours before it should be supplanted.
Mixing Tube:The surge of water that rises out of the nozzle is then blended in with the grating. This happens in the blending tube, which is generally developed out of tungsten-carbide. Wear of the blending tube, because of the grating, is an issue and it needs regular substitution. At the point when the cylinder becomes worn, the stream never again is durable and loses force and cutting capacity quickly.
Catchers: After the cut has been made, the water abrasive material is gathered in a catcher. In a field circumstance, there are still issues getting the waste material. Regularly catchers should be handcrafted for a particular work.
Application of WJM:-
Water jet machining is utilized in different businesses like mining, car, and aviation for performing cutting, molding, and reaming tasks.
The materials which are commonly machined by water jet (WJM) are rubber, textiles, plastics, foam, leather, composites, tile, stone glass, food, metals paper, and much more.
WJM is mostly used to cut soft and easy-to-machine materials such as thin sheets and foils, wood, nonferrous metallic alloys, textiles, honeycomb, plastics, polymers, leathers, frozen, etc.
Advantages of WJM:-
Extremely fast set-up and programming.
Very little fixturing for most parts.
Machine for all intents and purposes any 2D shape on any material.
Very low side forces during the machining.
Almost no heat generated on the part.
Machine thick plates.
Disadvantages of WJM:-
Hourly rates are relatively high.
It isn't reasonable for large-scale manufacturing cause of high maintenance requirements.
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