Comparison of the roughness of aluminium alloy's surfaces machined by radial and tangential waterjet turning

Abstract

Abrasive waterjet turning is a new technology to machine cylindrical or axisymmetric parts from hard to machine materials. There are two methods spread out for waterjet turning: tangential and radial method. One of the problems of waterjet turning is that the real depth of cut usually is not equal with the adjusted depth of cut. The radial and tangential processes result differences in surface quality when the same technological parameters are set. In this paper, we compare the roughness of the surfaces of an aluminium alloy machined by two types of waterjet turning in order to determine the advantages, disadvantages and, above all, their relationship to each other.