Leg sample waterjet cutting test

By: Akul ChodankarUnder the supervision: John Bonzo (Industrial Engineering Dept.)Date: 9/8/2015

On Friday, 4TH September 2015, the leg sample P-type 00792 (for module #2) was cut on the water jet cutting machine at Brinkman Lab, RIT. Sample dimension 20.5 X 4.75 X 2.89 mm.

The sample was placed in the designed fixture (Figure 1.) and was further fastened with aluminum tape (Figure 2.) to prevent it from opening during the operation. The entire assembly was placed on the cutting bed and then the cutting path was designated. The pressure conditions were set to Ceramic (presets available on the software). The sample was cut through the fixture obtaining 3 pieces of length ~5mm as the stream diameter is 1.016mm. The cut faces were not flat and needed to be ground flat (Figure 3.).

Figure 1. Leg sample placed in the fixture

The cut samples were then tried to be filed using a diamond file but the process seemed tedious and futile. The pieces where then mounted on a wise and ground using a regular stone grinding wheel. The samples measuring ~5.2mm in length were to be ground to 4mm length. Since the samples were not flat on the pressed faces, one of them cracked while mounting on the wise under pressure. The other cracked under the forces of the wheel. The stone wheel was effective but produced chipped edges along with forces that might have caused cracking. For the final and the third sample the stone wheel was then replaced with a diamond wheel. This wheel was super effective producing flat faces and sharp edges (Figure 4 & 5).

Figure 2. Tapped fixture ready for cutting

Figure 3 Leg samples after water jet cutting

Figure 4. Dimensions of leg ground by a diamond wheel

Figure 5. Sharp edges and flat face of leg ground by a diamond wheel

For the future process; plans are to design a fixture made of aluminum so as to rigidly hold the sample as the plastic fixture might have caused some motion during the cut. For the grounding

operations we will stick to the use of the diamond wheel as it proved to be the most effective one. As to the ease of operation, the water jetting process was fairly simple and quick. Major time is consumed in the grounding process which requires slow feed and dead accuracy but is fairly simple too, once you get on with the process.

Also we are in talks with the blade manufactures of the diamond cutting machine at the SMFL lab, Micro-electronics department, RIT; to help with selection of blade to be used on the machine for cutting the samples as an alternative to water jet cutting.