PC Me 701
PC Me 701
PC Me 701
Under
MAULANA ABUL KALAM AZAD UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
Submitted by
NAME: Pravat Kumar Rout
Traditional machining is mostly based on removal of materials using tools that are harder than the
materials themselves. New and novel materials because of their greatly improved chemical,
mechanical and thermal properties are sometimes impossible to machine using traditional
machining processes. Traditional machining methods are often ineffective in machining hard
materials like ceramics and composites or machining under very tight tolerances as in
micromachined components. Some of the Non Traditional process parameters are discussed below.
There is an optimum mixing ratio (mass fraction of the abrasive in the jet) for which the metal removal
rate is the highest.
When the mass flow rate of the abrasive increases the material removal rate also increases.
The Gas
The Nozzle
The nozzle is one of the most vital elements controlling the process characteristics.
The nozzle material should be hard to avoid any significant wear due to the flowing abrasive.
[Normally WC (avg. life: 12-30 hrs.) or Sapphire (Appr. = 300 hrs.) are used]
For a normal operation the cross-sectional area of the orifice can be either circular or rectangular
and between 0.05- 0.2mm2 .
The nozzle tip distance (NTD) or the stand off distance is a critical parameter in
AJM.
The NTD not only affects the MRR from the work surface but also the shape and size of
the cavity produced.
As shown in the figure below, when the NTD increases, the velocity of the abrasive particles
impinging on the work surface increases due to their acceleration after they leave the nozzle. This
increases the MRR.With a further increase in the NTD, the velocity reduces due to the drag of
the atmosphere which initially checks the increase in MRR and then decreases it.
• The basic USM process involves a tool (made of a ductile and tough material) vibrating with
a low amplitude and very high frequency and a continuous flow of an abrasive slurry in the
small gap between the tool and the work piece.
• The tool is gradually fed with a uniform force.
• The impact of the hard abrasive grains fractures the hard and brittle work surface,
resulting in the removal of the work material in the form of small wear particles.
• The tool material being tough and ductile wears out at a much slower rate.
Process Parameters
The important parameters which affect the process are the:
1. Fraequency
2. Amplitude
3. Static loading (feed force),
4. Hardness ratio of the tool and the
workpiece, 5. Grain size,
6. Concentration of the abrasive in the slurry.
With an increase in frequency of the tool head the MRR should increase proportionally.
However, there is a slight variation in the MRR with frequency.
When the amplitude of the vibration increases the MRR is expected to increase. The actual nature
of the variation is shown in Fig. (b). There is some discrepancy in the actual values again. This
arises from the fact that we calculate the duration of penetration Δt by considering average velocity.
We already said that with an increase in static loading, the MRR tends to increase. However, at
higher force values of the tool head due to grain crushing the MRR decreases.
The ratio of workpiece hardness and tool hardness affects the MRR quite significantly, and the
characteristics is shown below.
Apart from the hardness the brittleness of the work material plays a very dominant role. The
table below shows the relative MRR for different work materials. As can be seen the more
brittle material is machined more rapidly.
MRR should also rise proportionately with the mean grain diameter ‘d’. When
‘d’ becomes too large, the crushing tendency increases.
Concentration of the abrasives directly controls the number of grains producing impact per
cycle. MRR is proportional to C1/4 so after C rises to 30% MRR increase is not very fast.
Apart from the process parameters some physical properties (e.g. viscosity) of the fluid used for the
slurry also affects the MRR. Experiments show that MRR drops as viscosity increases.
Although the MRR is a very important consideration for judging the USM but so is the surface
finish.
The figure shows that the surface finish is more sensitive to grain size in case of glass
which is softer than tungsten carbide.This is because in case of a harder material the size
of the fragments dislodged through a brittle fracture does not depend much on the size of
the impacting particles.
Electrochemical Machining
The dissolution rate is more where the gap is less and vice versa.
This is because the current density is inversely proportional to the gap.
Now, if the tool is given a downward motion, the work surface tends to take the same shape as
that of the tool, and at a steady state the gap is uniform.
Thus the shape of the tool is represented in the job
In an electrochemical machining process, the electrolyte is pumped at a high pressure through
the tool and the small gap between the tool and the work-piece.
The electrolyte is so chosen that the anode is dissolved but there is no deposition on the
cathode.
The order of the current and voltage are a few 1000 amps and 8-20 volts. The gap is of the
order of 0.1-0.2mm .
The metal removal rate is typically 1600 mm3/sec for each 1000 Amp.
Approximately 3 KW-hr. are needed to remove 16000 mm3 of metal which is almost 30
times the energy required in a conventional process.
References:-
1) Kalpakjian & Schmid (2008). Manufacturing Processes for Engineering Materials, 5th Ed. University of
Notre Dame. p. 33
2) Fu, Guoyu; Huo, Dehong; Shyha, Islam; Pancholi, Ketan; Saharudin, Mohd Shahneel (July
2019).
3) "MAS.863/4.140J-P7". fab.cba.mit.edu. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved
2016-08-22.