Multiresponse Analysis in Abrasive Waterjet Machining Process on AA 6351

This study investigates optimal parameter setting in abrasive waterjet machining (AWJM) on aluminium alloy AA 6351, using taguchi based Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) is been reported. The water pressure, traverse speed and stand-off-distance were chosen as the process parameters in this study. An L 9 orthogonal matrix array is used for the experimental plan. The performance characteristics which include surface roughness (Ra) and kerf angle (KA) are considered. The results indicate that surface roughness and kerf angle decreases, with increase in water pressure and decrease in traverse speed. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) illustrates that traverse speed is the major parameter (89.7%) for reducing surface roughness and kerf angle, followed by water pressure (5.85%) and standoff distance (2%) respectively. The confirmation results reveal that surface roughness reduced by 16% and kerf angle reduced by 47%. Furthermore, the surfaces were examined under scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM) for a detailed study.