ABRASIVE JET MACHINING

• An unconventional machining process.

• It is the process of removal of materials by impact
erosion through the action of a concentrated, high
velocity of the grit abrasives entertained in a high-
velocity gas stream.
WHY ABRASIVE JET MACHINING ?

• Since it is an unconventional machining

process, so it is used where conventional
machining processes cannot be used, like in
machining of hastalloy, nitralloy, nimonics,etc.
• Also it differs from conventional sand blasting
process for its fineness of particle size and
controllable machining parameters.
SCHEMATIC SET UP OF ABRASIVE JET
MACHINING PROCESS:-
PROCESS DESCRIPTION:-

• In this process, a gas (nitrogen or carbon dioxide

or air), is supplied under pressure (2-8kg/sq.cm) is
supplied and after filter and regulator, it is passed
to a mixing chamber (containing abrasive
particles) vibrating at 50c/sec.
• From the mixing chamber , the gas along with the
abrasive particles of size 10-50 micro-mt. passes
on to a nozzle having its tip of tungsten carbide
and diameter around 0.45mm , with a velocity of
150-300m/sec.
• The air consumption is of the order of 0.6 cu-
m/hr.
• The nozzle tip distance is of the order of 0.81mm
• The abrasive powder feed rate is controlled by the
amplitude of vibration of the mixing chamber.
• The relative motion between the nozzle and the
work piece is obtained by cams,pantographs to
control size and shape of cut.
• Dust removal equipment is also incorporated to
protect the environment.
OPERATING PRINCIPLES IN ABRASIVE
JET MACHINING:-

• Carrier gas
• Shape of cut
• Nozzle design
• Work material
• Type of abrasive
• Stand-off distance
• Size of abrasive grain
• Velocity of abrasive jets
• Mean of abrasive particle/unit volume of the carrier gas
EFFECT OF VARIOUS PARAMETERS
ON MATERIAL REMOVAL RATE
 ABRASIVES USED IN ABRASIVE
JET MACHINING
ABRASIVES: GRAIN
1. Alumina SIZE(micron)
2. Silicon carbide 10,27,50
3. Sodium bicarbonate
-do-
4. Dolomite
27
5. Glass beads
66
0.635-1.27mm
 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
PROCESS:-
1. Size of abrasive Around 25 micro-mt.

2. Flow rate 3-20 g/min.

3. Life of nozzle WC(12-30 hrs),sapphire(300 hrs).

4. Tolerance + or – 0.05mm

5. Surface roughness 0.15-0.2 micro-m with particles of size 10micro-

m, 0.4-0.8 micro-m.
6. Work material Hard and brittle materials like glass, ceramics,
mica, etc.
7. Machining operations Drilling , cutting , deburring , cleaning.
APPLICATIONS OF THE PROCESS:-
• Used for abrading and frosting glass more
economically as compared to etching or grinding.
• For cleaning of metallic smears on ceramics, oxides
on metals, resistive coatings, etc.
• Cutting and machining of fragile material like Ge, Si,
etc.
• For deburring small hole in hypodermic needles and
for small milled slots in hard metallic components.
• Register treaming can be done very easily and micro-
module fabrication for electrical contact,
semiconductor processing can also be done
effectively.
ADVANTAGES OF THE PROCESS:-

• Ability to cut fragile, brittle or heat sensitive

material without damage.
• Ability to cut intricate holes in materials of
any hardness.
• Low capital cost.
• Can cut materials without damage because
there is no heating of the working surface.
 DISADVANTAGES OF THE
PROCESS
• Slow material removal rate.
• Low accuracy (0.1mm) due to stray
cutting.
• Abrasives get embedded on the
material surface, if it is soft.
• Abrasives powder cannot be refused.
 FUTURE PROSPECTS OF THE
PROCESS

• This process can be used in future in those

places where there is intricacy and costly
machining, so this process can be used to
remove both of these difficulties.
• Also, due to cost-effectiveness of the set of
AJM, this process can be used in small-scale
industries.
 REFERENCES

• Production technology- R.K.Jain

• Non-conventional machining- P.K.Mishra
• Google
• Wikipedia