The surface quality of AWJ cut parts as a function of abrasive material reusing rate

Abrasive water jet cutting (AWJ) has been extensively used during the last years to process a large variety of materials since it offers important advantages as a good quality of the processed surface, without heat affected zones, low environmental impact (no emission of dust or other compounds that endanger the health of the user), small induced mechanical stresses etc. The main disadvantage is the high cost of processing (cost of equipment and consumables). In view of this, the effects of reusing the abrasive material on the quality of processed surface are investigated in this paper. Two steel materials were used: OL 37 (S 235) with large applicability in machine building industry and 2P armor steel used in the arms industry. The reusing rate of the garnet abrasive material was: 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100%. The quality of processed surface was quantified by the following parameters: width at the jet inlet (Li), width at the jet outlet (Lo), inclination angle (α), deviation from perpendicularity (u) and roughness (Ra).