21ME751 NTM AJM

MODULE 2
Ultrasonic Machining (USM):
Introduction, Equipment and material process, Effect of process parameters: Effect of
amplitude and frequency, Effect of abrasive grain diameter, effect of slurry, tool & work
material. Process characteristics: Material removal rate, tool wear, accuracy, surface finish,
applications, advantages & limitations of USM.
Abrasive Jet Machining (AJM):
Introduction, Equipment and process of material removal, process variables: carrier gas, type
of abrasive, work material, stand-off distance (SOD).Process characteristics-Material removal
rate, Nozzle wear, accuracy & surface finish. Applications, advantages & limitations of AJM.
Water Jet Machining (WJM):
Equipment & process, Operation, applications, advantages and limitations of WJM.
08 hours
ABRASIVE JET MACHINING (AJM)
Introduction
In abrasive jet machining, a focused stream of abrasive particles, carried by high pressure
air or gas is made to impinge on the work surface through a nozzle and work material is removed
by erosion by high velocity abrasive particles.
Process:
In Abrasive jet machining abrasive particles are made to impinge on work material at
high velocity. Jet of abrasive particles is carried by carrier gas or air. The high velocity stream
of abrasives is generated by converting pressure energy of carrier gas or air to its Kinetic energy
and hence high velocity jet. A nozzle directs abrasive jet in a controlled manner onto work
material. The high velocity abrasive particles remove the material by micro-cutting action as
well as brittle fracture of the work material.

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A schematic layout of AJM is shown above. The gas stream is then passed to the nozzle
through a connecting hose. The velocity of the abrasive stream ejected through the nozzle is
generally of the order of 330 m/sec.
Abrasive jet Machining consists of
1. Gas propulsion system
2. Abrasive feeder
3. Machining Chamber
4. AJM Nozzle
5. Abrasives
Gas Propulsion System
Supplies clean and dry air. Air, Nitrogen and carbon dioxide to propel the abrasive
particles. Gas may be supplied either from a compressor or a cylinder. In case of a compressor,
air filter cum drier should be used to avoid water or oil contamination of abrasive powder. Gas
should be non-toxic, cheap, and easily available. It should not excessively spread when
discharged from nozzle into atmosphere. The propellant consumption is of order of 0.008
m3/min at a nozzle pressure of 5 bar and abrasive flow rate varies from 2 to 4 gm/min for fine
machining and 10 to 20 gm/min for cutting operation.
Abrasive Feeder:
Required quantity of abrasive particles is supplied by abrasive feeder. The filleted
propellant is fed into the mixing chamber where in abrasive particles are fed through a sieve.
The sieve is made to vibrate at 50-60 Hz and mixing ratio is controlled by the amplitude of
vibration of sieve. The particles are propelled by carrier gas to a mixing chamber. Air abrasive
mixture moves further to nozzle. The nozzle imparts high velocity to mixture which is directed
at work piece surface.
Machining chamber
It is well closed so that concentration of abrasive particles around the working chamber
does not reach to the harmful limits. Machining chamber is equipped with vacuum dust

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collector. Special consideration should be given to dust collection system if the toxic materials
(like beryllium) are being machined.
AJM nozzle
AJM nozzle is usually made of tungsten carbide or sapphire (usually life – 300 hours for
sapphire, 20 to 30 hours for WC) which has resistance to wear. The nozzle is made of either
circular or rectangular cross section and head can be straight, or at a right angle. It is so designed
that loss of pressure due to the bends, friction, etc. is minimum possible. With increase in wear
of a nozzle, the divergence of jet stream increases resulting in more stray cutting and high
inaccuracy.

Abrasives
Aluminium oxide (Al2O3) Silicon carbide (SiC) Glass beads, crushed glass and sodium-
bicarbonate are some of abrasives used in AJM. Selection of abrasives depends on MRR, type
of work material, machining accuracy.

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Sl. No Abrasives Grain Sizes Application

12, 20, 50 Good for cleaning, cutting and
1 Aluminium oxide(Al2O3)
microns deburring
25, 40 Used for similar application, but for
2 Silicon carbide (SiC)
micron hard material
0.635 to 1.27
3 Glass beads Gives matte finish
mm
4 Dolomite 200 mesh Etching and polishing
Cleaning, deburring and cutting of soft
5 Sodium bi carbonate 27 micros
material; Light finishing below 500C

Process of material removal

This is a process of removal of material by impact erosion through the action of
concentrated high velocity stream of grit abrasives entrained in high velocity gas stream. AJM
is different from shot or sand blasting, as in AJM, finer abrasive grits are used and parameters
can be controlled more effectively providing better control over product quality.
In AJM, generally, the abrasive particles of around 50 microns grit size would impinge
on the work material at velocity of 200 m/s from a nozzle of ID 0.5mm with a stand-off distance
of around 2mm. The kinetic energy of the abrasive particles would sufficient to provide
material removal due to brittle fracture of the work piece or even micro cutting by the abrasives.
Physics of the Process:
 Fine particles (0.025mm) are accelerated in a gas stream.
 The particle are directed towards the focus of machining.
 As the particles impact the surface, it causes a micro fracture, and gas carries fractured
particles away.
 Brittle and fragile work better.
Following assumptions are made in deriving the Material removal models for AJM.
1. Abrasive are spherical in shape and rigid.
2. Kinetic energy of particle is completely used to cut the material.
3. Brittle material are considered to fail due to brittle fracture and fracture of volume is
considered to be hemispherical with diameter equal to chordal length of indentation.
4. For Ductile material volume of material removal is assumed to be equal to indentation
volume due to particulate impact.

Process variables
 Abrasives
a) material – Al2O3 SiC Glass beads Crushed glass Sodium bi carbonate

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b) shape – irregular/regular
c) Size – 10 to 50 microns
d) Mass flow – 2-20 gm/min
 Carrier Gas
a) Composition – Air, CO2, N2
b) Density – 1.3 kg/m3
c) Velocity - 500 to 700 m/s
d) Pressure - 2 to 10 bar
e) Flow rate - 5 to 30 microns
 Abrasive Jet
o Velocity - 100 to 300 m/s
o Mixing ratio – Volume flow rate of abrasives/Volume flow rate of gas
o Standoff distance – SOD- 0.5 to 15mm.
o Impingement angle – 60 to 90 deg.
 Nozzle
a) Material – WC/Sapphire
b) Diameter – 0.2 to 0.8 mm
c) Life – 300 hours for sapphire, 20 to 30 hours for WC
 Process capability
 Material removal rate – 0.015 cm3/min
 Narrow slots – 0.12 to 0.25mm ± 0.12mm
 3 Surface finish -0.25 micron to 1.25 micron
 4 Sharp radius up to 0.2mm is possible
 Steel up to 1.5mm ,Glass up to 6.3mm is possible to cut
 Machining of thin sectioned hard and brittle materials is possible.
Process characteristics
For successful utilization of AJM process, it is necessary to analyze the following
process criteria.
 Material removal rate
 Geometry and surface finish of work piece
 wear rate of the nozzle
However, Process criteria are generally influenced by the process parameters as
enumerated below:
Effect of abrasive flow rate and grain size on MRR
It is clear from the figure that at a particular pressure MRR increase with increase of
abrasive flow rate and is influenced by size of abrasive particles. But after reaching optimum

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value, MRR decreases with further increase of abrasive flow rate. This is owing to the fact that
Mass flow rate of gas decreases with increase of abrasive flow rate and hence mixing ratio
increases causing a decrease in material removal rate because of decreasing energy available
for erosion.

Effect of exit gas velocity and abrasive particle density

The velocity of carrier gas conveying the abrasive particles changes considerably with
the change of abrasive particle density as indicated in figure. The exit velocity of gas can be
increased to critical velocity when the internal gas pressure is nearly twice the pressure at exit
of nozzle for the abrasive particle density is zero. If the density of abrasive particles is gradually
increased exit velocity will go on decreasing for the same pressure condition. It is due to fact
that Kinetic energy of gas is utilized for transporting the abrasive particle.

Effect of Mixing ratio on MRR

Increased mass flow rate of abrasive will result in a decreased velocity of fluid and will
thereby decreases the available energy for erosion and ultimately the MRR. It is convenient to
explain to this fact by term MIXING RATIO which is defined as
𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑟 𝑔𝑎𝑠
𝑀𝑖𝑥𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜 =
𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑜𝑓 𝐶𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑟 𝑔𝑎𝑠 + 𝑎𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠

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21ME751 NTM AJM

The effect of mixing ratio on the material removal rate is shown above. The material
removal rate can be improved by increasing the abrasive flow rate provided the mixing ratio
can be kept constant. The mixing ratio is unchanged only by simultaneous increase of both gas
and abrasive flow rate. An optimum value of mixing ratio that gives maximum MRR is
predicted by trial and error. In place of Mixing ratio, the mass ratio (α) may be easier to
determine, which is defined as

Effect of Nozzle pressure on MRR

The abrasive flow rate can be increased by increasing the flow rate of the carrier gas.
This is only possible by increasing the internal gas pressure as shown in the figure. As the
internal gas pressure increases abrasive mass flow rate increase and thus MRR increases. As a
matter of fact, the material removal rate will increase with the increase in gas pressure. Kinetic
energy of the abrasive particles is responsible for the removal of material by erosion process.
The abrasive must impinge on the work surface with minimum velocity for machining glass
by SIC particle is found to be around 150m/s.

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Standoff distance.
Standoff distance is defined as the distance between the face of the nozzle and the work
surface of the work. SOD has been found to have considerable effect on the work material and
accuracy. A large SOD results in flaring of jet which leads to poor accuracy. It is clear from
figure that MRR increase with nozzle tip distance or Standoff distance up to certain distance
and then decreases. Penetration rate also increases with SOD and then decreases.

Decrease in SOD improves accuracy, decreases key width and reduces taper in
machined groove. However light operation like cleaning, frosting etc. are conducted with large
SOD (say 12.5 to 75mm).

Applications
1. This is used for abrading and frosting glass more economically as compared to
etching or grinding
2. Cleaning of metallic smears on ceramics, oxides on metals, resistive coating etc.
3. AJM is useful in manufacture of electronic devices , drilling of glass wafers,
deburring of plastics, making of nylon and Teflon parts permanent marking on rubber
stencils, cutting titanium foils
4. Deflashing small castings, engraving registration numbers on toughened glass used
for car windows
5. Used for cutting thin fragile components like germanium, silicon etc.
6. Register treaming can be done very easily and micro module fabrication for electrical
contact, semiconductor processing can also be done effectively.
7. Used for drilling, cutting, deburring etching and polishing of hard and brittle
materials.

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8. Most suitable for machining brittle and heat sensitive materials like glass, quartz,
sapphire, mica, ceramics germanium, silicon and gallium.
9. It is also good method for deburring small hole like in hypodermic needles and for
small milled slots in hard metallic components.

Advantages
1. High surface finish can be obtained depending upon the grain size.
Sl. No. Particle Size (microns) Surface Roughness (microns)
1 10 0.152 to 0.203
2 25 – 27 0.355 to 0.675
3 50 0.965 to 1.27
2. Depth of damage is low (around 2.5 microns).
3. It provides cool cutting action, so it can machine delicate and heat sensitive material.
4. Process is free from chatter and vibration as there is no contact between the tool and
work piece.
5. Capital cost is low and it is easy to operate and maintain AJM.
6. Thin sections of hard brittle materials like germanium, mica, silicon, glass and
ceramics can be machined.
7. It has the capability of cutting holes of intricate shape in hard materials.

Limitations
1. Limited capacity due to low MRR. MRR for glass is 40 gm/minute
2. Abrasives may get embedded in the work surface, especially while machining soft
material like elastomers or soft plastics.
3. The accuracy of cutting is hampered by tapering of hole due to unavoidable flaring of
abrasive jet.
4. Stray cutting is difficult to avoid
5. A dust collection system is a basic requirement to prevent atmospheric pollution and
health hazards.
6. Nozzle life is limited (300 hours)
7. Abrasive powders cannot be reused as the sharp edges are worn and smaller particles
can clog the nozzle.
8. Short stand-off distances when used for cutting, damages the nozzle.

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