Document Type

Thesis

Date of Award

8-31-1991

Degree Name

Master of Science in Manufacturing Engineering - (M.S.)

Department

Manufacturing Engineering Division

First Advisor

E. S. Geskin

Second Advisor

Nouri Levy

Third Advisor

Avraham Harnoy

Abstract

This study is an effort to advance the technology of machining by High energy beams. Investigation of the Waterjet, Plasma and the Oxyfuel beams was carried out to explore novel machining techniques. The study was focussed on three major objectives.

One of the major objectives was to set up an Integrated beam workcell consisting of the three beams. A hydroabrasive waterjet workcell was modified to install the three cutting tools to be along the same line of traverse. An integrated beam consisting of the thermal and the waterjet beams was produced because of this arrangement. The feasibility of using the integrated beam for machining of steel samples was investigated by various methods.

The thermal beams were used for heating a focussed spot on the metal. Piercing experiments by impinging the high pressure waterjet on the heated steel samples resulted in a 3-4 fold increase in the material removal volume when compared to the impingement on the non-heated surface of steel. Results indicate that the depth of beam penetration increases significantly when the metal surface is heated, when compared to the impingement of the waterjet without any heating. The results also suggest the feasibility of practical implementation of the integration of the thermal and the waterjet beams.

Linear cutting experiments were carried out by moving the heat beam and the high pressure waterjet beam simultaneously along the metal surface. The results indicate that the process parameters concerned with the heating process such as temperature of beam and intensity of heat need to be optimized during the cutting process.

The improvement of the surface finish by Abrasive-Waterjet (AWJ) machining was another major objective of this study. The AWJ beam was used as a finishing tool for machining of Stainless steel SS 304 metal. The machining was performed by using the beam to strike the surface at a 90? tangent. The experimental results obtained clearly demonstrate that AWJ can be used as a finishing tool for producing precision surfaces with Roughness Average (Ra) value of less than 1 micron. The particle size was an important factor affecting the Roughness of the surface.

The third major objective of this study was to investigate the cutting of fiber-composites by AWJ. The feasibility of using AWJ to prevent the composite delamination during the cutting of various types of composites is demonstrated as a result of this work.

Included in

Manufacturing Commons

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