Abrasive waterjet cutting of cladded material: kerf taper and MRR analysis

Gas/plasma cutting of cladded materials provides inferior cut quality that demands subsequent finishing processes. Abrasive waterjet cutting could be a proficient alternate in terms of cut quality. However, the inherent problem of kerf taper and low material removal rate in comparison to the said thermal cutting processes limit its application. Therefore, potential of aforesaid machining process for cutting of stainless-clad steel is investigated with a prior focus on maximizing the material removal rate with minimum kerf taper. Abrasive mass flow, traverse speed, water pressure, and stand-off distance have been selected as input parameters. ANOVA analysis revealed that traverse rate as well as abrasive mass flow are the major contributing factors for both the responses. Optimal settings of parameters developed by S/N ratio analysis results in an improvement of 18.6% in material removal rate and 39% in the kerf taper. Moreover, regression models are developed and validated through various statistical tests.