TECHNICAL OPTIMIZATION OF WATER JET CUTTING OF BIODEGRADABLE MATERIALS

Abstract

The main purpose of the technical optimization is to determine the optimal values of the processing parameters in order to increase the processing performance or decrease the processing time. Abrasive material water jet cutting is a processing process whose applicability is increasing in the conditions of the appearance of high-performance equipment. The technical optimization of this machining process aims at determining the distance between the machined material and the cutting head, determining the optimum length of the focusing tube, establishing the optimum machining pressure and determining the optimum amount of abrasive material so as to ensure maximum penetration depth of water jet with abrasive or minimizing surface roughness. During the research, the part subjected to abrasive water jet cutting was obtained by injection from Arboblend V2 Nature. The experiments were carried out according to a complete factorial plan 23, where the parameters on two levels were: water jet pressure, cutting speed and abrasive material flow. The optimization criterion followed was to minimize the standard roughness Ra. The experimental results showed that the parameter flow rate of abrasive material has the greatest influence on the roughness, the highest values of roughness are obtained when using a larger amount of abrasive (300g / min). The lowest value of the roughness of the cut surfaces is obtained for the following process parameters: low water pressure - 100MPa, high cutting speed - 150 mm / min and high flow of abrasive material - 300g / min.