Investigation of Different Abrasives Mixtures Ratio in Abrasive Water Jet Drilling of SS304

The present work deals with effect of different abrasives mixtures ratio on Abrasive Water Jet (AWJ) drilling of SS304. In this study, the drilling operations were conducted with a combination of different abrasives with different mixture ratios such as 100% garnet, 60% garnet & 40% aluminum oxide, 60% garnet & 40% silicon carbide, 40% garnet & 60% aluminum oxide, 40% garnet & 60% silicon carbide, 50% silicon carbide & 50% aluminum oxide. Machining parameters namely, abrasive types, stand-off distance and feed rate were also considered for this study. Based on these factors, Taguchi L18 orthogonal array was designed for the drilling operations. The hole geometrical features such as cylindricity and surface roughness were investigated. The experimental results indicate that 40% garnet & 60% aluminum oxide and 60% garnet & 40% aluminum oxide has produced a better cylindricity and surface finish respectively. In addition, the application of taguchi with grey analysis has produced optimal parameter settings to better hole features in AWJ drilling process. The optimal parameter settings found to be 40% of garnet & 60% of aluminum oxide, 5 mm of stand-off distance and 170 mm/min of feed rate.