Study on abrasive water jet drilling for graphite filled glass/epoxy laminates

Abstract

This work investigates the effect of Abrasive Water Jet (AWJ) drilling parameters on diameter of the drilled holes in Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) composite having 2 %, 4 % and 6 % graphite. The experiments were designed using Taguchi L9 orthogonal array with two replications and the drilling experiments are made using five-axis CNC AWJ machine. The influence of AWJ process parameters such as jet operating pressure, feed rate and Stand-off Distance (SOD) on hole-dimension is investigated and the results are reported. Further, the process parameters are optimized using statistical method. The study shows that jet operating pressure is the most influential operating parameter affecting the hole-diameter on the workpiece and the use of graphite in GFRP composite improve its machinability.