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Green Waterjet Machining Technology(Peter) H.-T. Liu, PhDASETSDefense Workshop 2018

August 23, 2018OMAX Corporationwww.omax.com

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Merits of Waterjet• Green machining process

• Use no toxic machining fluid and produce no hazardous waste

• Water and abrasive are recyclable • Cold cutting with no HAZ

• Preserve materials’ properties • Material independent

• Cut difficult materials, e.g., hardened steel with Rc ~ 58

• Cut titanium 34% faster than stainless steel

• Cut most composites

Typical heat damage by CO2 lasers

• Single tool qualified for multi-mode macro to micro machining• Preferred near-net-shaping tool for extremely precision parts

• Remove bulk of materials • Finish part with light trimming - minimize wear of precision hard tools

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Merits (cont’d)• Significant advancements in AWJ precision machining

• Windows-based Intelli-MAX Software Suite is available for automation

• Advanced cutting model for improving performance in cut quality and speed

• Multi-head accessories for multi-mode (2D/3D) machining• Developed micro abrasive (µAWJ) technology for meso-

micro machining (NSF SBIR Phase II/IIB)• Commercialization – Award-winning MicroMAX® JetMachining® Center

• Waterjet often competes on equal footing with lasers, EDM, and other tools (i.e., for heat sensitive materials)

• User friendly (PC-based CAD/CAM) - no steep learning curve

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Facilities and Software• Four US-made product lines of waterjet machines

ProtoMAX

GlobalMAX

MicroMAX§Maxiem

OMAX

§Name Finalist of 2016 R&D 100 Awards

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Waterjet NozzlesSchematic and production nozzles

MA

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4/30

)

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Accessories for 3D MachiningTilt-A-Jet (TAJ), A-Jet, and Rotary Axis

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Window-Based CAD/CAM• Window-based Intelli-MAX Software Suite – powerful

yet intuitive and user friendly • CAD (LAYOUT) – create tool paths from designed or

imported part files• CAM (MAKE) – prepare tool paths for automated machining

• Incorporates advanced cutting model to assign machineability and pierceability based on material properties

• Controls accessories and nozzle movement for precision 2D and 3D machining

• Waterjet is cost effective with fast turnaround for• Small lots (R&D, prototyping, and reverse engineering• Large lots (24/7 production runs)

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Advanced Cutting ModelIndices of Machineability and Pierceability

Four Generations

G4 vs G2: 215%G4 vs G3: 187%

G5 : in development

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Material IndependenceAssortment of AWJ-cut parts for various materials

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Wide Range of Part Size/ThicknessTa

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Wide Range of Part Size/Thickness (cont’d)Repair of Φ1.5m wind turbine gear

100 mm thick BisalloyMiniature planetary gear

.5 mm thick titanium

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3D Parts Made with Rotary Axis and/or A-JetSlotted copper tubes for novel high-efficiency motors

Cou

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Assortment of 3D parts

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3D Parts (cont’d)S S Soccer Ball Global Map Metal Weld Joints

PEEK Cranial Implants Ti Mesh Cash S S Stents

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ASJ/AWJ MillingNear-net-shaped glass lens Aluminum nitride lens

Lightweighting of support of Hubble telescope

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Multimode MachiningAluminum chess set - facing, turning, slotting/grooving, ……

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Difficult Materials (cont’d)

• Cutting Time• AWJ (MicroMAX) – 23 min• Wire EDM (3 passes) – 6 hrs

Bonding extender for lapping thin-film ceramic substrates (2.1mm 440C stainless steel hardened to RC 58)

Ratio : 15

Entry Side Exit Side

Courtesy of Competitive Engineering

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Delicate Geometry (NASA/JPL)

Cost for Cutting10 parts Cost Ratio Wire EDM (3 passes) $1400 µAWJ (Single pass) $250 < 1/5

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Delicate Parts

Soda Lime Glass RotorCarbon Fiber UkuleleMulti-Layered glass Sculpture

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Precision MachiningNonlinear Load Cells with five orders of magnitude force range

With

con

stan

t-wid

thfle

xure

sW

ith ta

pere

d fle

xure

s

US Patent #20150233440

Courtesy of MIT Precision Engineering Research Group (PERG)

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Deployment of Mobile AWJ in Battlefield

OMAX Mobile AWJ deployed at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan for in-theater Emergency rapid-response repair of heavy equipment

(http://www.sme.org/MEMagazine/Article.aspx?id=78461)

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Examples of Rapid-Response Repair• Cut “grapping hooks” to find trip wires of IDEs• Reinforced frames of heavy-duty M870 trailers

• Waterjet cut four plates in 1-1/2 hours• Plasma-cutting, grinding, and welding could take 2 to 3

days to fabricate one plate• The only option to cut holes on armor plates on

site for cables to upgrade MTVR (Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement)

• Machined 2000 titanium washers for a V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft

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Summary• Waterjet is a green machining process • It has technological and manufacturing merits that are

unmatched by most machine tools• With the addition of µAWJ technology, OMAX has

achieved full capacity of multi-mode machining of most materials from macro to micro scales (“7M” advantage)

• A single tool is qualified for “7M” machining• For heat sensitive materials, AWJ with no HAZ cuts > 10

times faster than lasers, wire EDM, and plasma cutter• Lasers (thickness limited) must pulsed at high frequencies • Wire EDM must cut (conductive materials only) with multi-passes• Plasma cutting requires labor intense and time consuming

grinding to remove HAZ

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ReferencesLiu, H.-T. (2007) “Hole Drilling with Abrasive Fluidjets,” Int. J. of Adv. Manufacturing Tech., Vol. 32, pp. 942-957, Springer-Verlag

London Limited, pp. 1-16. DOI 10.1007/s00170-005-0398-xLiu, H.-T. and Schubert, E. (2009) “Piercing in Delicate Materials with Abrasive-Waterjets,” Int. J. of Adv. Manuf. Tech, Vol. 42: No.

3-4, pp. 263 - 279. (DOI: 10.1007/s00170-008-1583-5).Liu, H.-T. (2010) “Waterjet technology for machining fine features pertaining to micromachining,” J. Manuf. Proc., Vol. 12, No. 1,

pp. 8-18. (doi:10.1016/j.jmapro.2010.01.002).Henning, A., Liu, H.-T., and Olsen, C. (2012) “Economic and Technical Efficiency of High Performance Abrasive Waterjet Cutting,”

ASME JPVT, 133 (6), December.Liu, H.-T. and Schubert, E. (2012) “Micro Abrasive-Waterjet Technology (Chapter Title),” Micromachining Techniques for

Fabrication of Micro and Nano Structures, Ed. Mojtaba Kahrizi, INTECH Open Access Publisher, ISBN 978-953-307-906-6,January, pp. 205-34 (http://cdn.intechweb.org/pdfs/27087.pdf) – has over 3000 downloads so far.

Liu, H.-T and Olsen, J. H. (2013) "Application of AWJ for 3D Machining," Proc. 2013 WJTA-ICMA Conference and Expo, Houston,Texas, September 9-11.

Liu, H.-T. (2017) “Versatility of micro abrasive waterjet technology for machining nanomaterials,” Dekker Encyclopedia ofNanoscience and Nanotechnology, Third Edition DOI: 10.1081/E-ENN3-120054064, pp. 1-18.

Liu, H.-T., Cutler, V., Miles, P., Raghavan , C., Miles, P., Schubert, E., and Webers, N. (2018) “Advanced Abrasive Waterjet forMultimode Machining (Chapter title),” to appear in Abrasive Technology - Characteristics and Applications, Anna Rudawska,Ed. , ISBN 978-953-51-6218-6.

Liu, H.-T., Hovanski, Y., and Dahl, M. E. (2012) “Machining of Aircraft Titanium with Abrasive-Waterjets for Fatigue Critical Applications”, ASME JPVT, 134 (1), February.

Liu, H.-T. (2017) ‘“7M”Advantage of Abrasive Waterjet for Machining Advanced Materials,’ J. Manuf. Mater. Process., 1 (1), 11, MDPI, Basel, Switzerland (http://www.mdpi.com/2504-4494/1/1/11/pdf)

Liu, (Peter) H.-T. (2015) “Abrasive-waterjet machining of most materials from macro to micro scales,” Proc 2015 TechConnectWorld Innovation Conference and Expo, June 14-17, Washington DC.

Liu, Peter H.-T. (2016) “Roles of taper compensation in AWJ precision machining,” Proc. 23rd Int. Conf. on Water Jetting, Seattle, WA, Nov. 16-18.

Liu, Peter H.-T. (2017) “Precision Machining of Advanced Materials with Abrasive Waterjets,” IOP Conf. Series: Materials Scienceand Engineering, 164, (2017) 012008 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/164/1/012008 (http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/164/1/012008/pdf).

Liu, H.-T., Cutler, V., and Webers, N. (2018) “Recent Advancement in Abrasive Waterjet for Precision Multimode Machining,” paper to be presented at 24th Int Conf on Water Jetting, September 4 – 5, Manchester, UK

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Acknowledgment

Thank You!