The equipment used for machining the samples was Water Jet Sweden cutter which was equipped
with KMT ultrahigh pressure pump with the designed pressure of 4000 bar. Figure 1 shows the
schematic of the abrasive waterjet cutting process. The machine is equipped with a gravity feed type
of abrasive hopper, an abrasive feeder system, a pneumatically controlled valve and a work piece
table with dimension of 3000 mm x 1500 mm. A 0.35 mm diameter sapphire orifice was used to
transform the high-pressure water into a collimated jet, with a carbide nozzle of 1.05 mm diameter to
form an abrasive waterjet. Throughout the experiments, the nozzle was frequently checked and
replaced with a new one whenever the nozzle was worn out significantly. The abrasives used were 80
mesh garnet particles with the average diameter of 0.18 mm and density of 4100 kg/m3. The abrasives
were delivered using compressed air from a hopper to the mixing chamber and were regulated using a
metering disc. The abrasive waterjet pressure is manually controlled using the pressure gauge. The
standoff distance is controlled through the controller in the operator control stand. The traverse speed
was controlled automatically by the abrasive waterjet system programmed by NC code. The debris of
material and the slurry were collected into a catcher tank.
Figure 1.