Ai\ew Sensing Stis'iem to Monniorabrasive Waier.'et No,ea.& Wear

A wear sensor system for direct and almost on-line tracking the wear of an abrasive waterjet (AWJ) nozzle is proposed. The wear sensor is based on the conductive loops which will be placed on the ceramic's substrate and embedded on the tip of the nozzle. At the heart of this wear sensor systeln is a wear sensor probe which includes conductive loops divided into four sections. In thil arrangement, each conductive loop includes a wearable conductive portion embedded at a particular location within the tip of thg AWJ nozzle. The integrity or wear condition of the AWJ nozzle is indicated by the electrical closetor open circuit condition of each conductive loop. -The continuity status of each wear sensor probe is converted to logic one or logrg zero digit"l dtF information whic-tr are samplgd perio{ig{lyb{. a ccntral processing unit (CPU) for providing a visual or audible indication in iesponse to a predetermined erosion or wear condition. Additionally, the CPU is programmed to analyze collected wear data in order to determine the direction of the wear propagation and to provide the infomation to the controller to compensate for the increase in the AWJ nozz)e inside diameter.