Experimental study of abrasive water jet drilling parameters on UHMWPE for biomedical implant applications

This study addresses this issue by exploring the effectiveness of abrasive water jet drilling (AWJD) as an unconventional machining approach for UHMWPE. The research employs a full factorial analysis to examine various hole characteristics, including machining time (MT), surface roughness (Ra), taper angle (TA), material removal rate (MRR), and taper ratio (TR). The study aims to understand the effect of the process features, namely abrasive water jet pressures (p), traverse rates (v), and abrasive mass flow rates (ma), on the geometry and position of the drilled holes. The results show that (v) and (p) affect the drilled hole characteristics of surface morphology, roughness, MT, MRR, TA, and TR. The microstructural characteristics of the drilled-hole surfaces are analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It revealed that the smooth surface is attained at the lower v of 150 mm/min and ma of 250 g/min.