Experimental investigation of abrasive waterjet hole cutting on hybrid carbon/glass composite R.K. Thakur a,⇑ , K.K. Singh a , J. Ramkumar b a Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT (ISM), Dhanbad, Jharkhand 826004, India b Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, 208016, India article info Article history: Received 7 September 2019 Received in revised form 4 October 2019 Accepted 8 November 2019 Available online xxxx Keywords: Abrasive waterjet Hole cutting Hybrid carbon/glass Surface roughness Kerf taper ANOVA abstract Hybrid composite includes two or more different high strength fibre with a comparatively low strength matrix resin in order to get specific requirement for engineering applications. Hole cutting using tradi- tional machining methods produces various damages on the cutting zone. Abrasive water jet (AWJ) machining finds several advantages over traditional methods in the process of hole cutting. In this study, surface quality and kerf taper produced in hole cutting on hybrid carbon/glass laminate by adjusting the parameters like jet pressure, traverse rate and standoff distance using abrasive water jet are analysed. ANOVA analysis was used to check the significance of individual parameters. Optimal setting of param- eters for better machining responses were achieved using grey relational analysis. Minimum surface roughness and kerf taper were achieved at high jet pressure with low standoff distance and traverse rate. Standoff distance was the dominating factor followed by traverse rate and jet pressure. Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Mechanical and Energy Technologies. 1. Introduction Composite materials are highly required in every sector of engi- neering application and become a substitute of metallic material owing to exceptional mechanical properties. For the production of versatile designed product, fibre reinforced composites have found much attention by reason of their high fatigue limit and specific strength, superb corrosion resistance and lightweight [1]. Different fibres such as carbon and glass and resin like polyester and epoxy have been used in previous application. Each of above-mentioned materials contains particular design application advantages. Single type of fibre can’t contribute all the require- ment of an ideal composite. For example, carbon fibre composite have high strength and stiffness compared to glass fibre compos- ites. But application of carbon fibre is still low due to high cost. Hence hybridization of two or more fibre in common matrix pro- vides combined better mechanical and physical properties and became the solution to these limitations of fibres [2]. In early 1970, hybrid fibre composites (HFRP) are introduced with the pur- pose of combining the advantage of fibers and reduce the draw- back of each. Large number of research work have been carried out on the performance and mechanical properties of HFRP com- posites [3–7]. Machining of HFRP has become an intense subject of research with the rapid growth in automotive and aerospace industries [8]. It is generally prepared using resin transfer molding along with curing process in order to achieve near to net size and processed through post machining operation like surface grinding, edge trim- ming and hole cutting to achieve the fittings and dimensional tol- erance. Service life of components depends on hole quality in the process of bolting or riveting [9]. Conventional machining like dril- ling is preferred for hole making, which produces delamination owing to extreme stress in the cutting zone [10,11]. Also, health issues arise due to fibre dust in cutting process [12]. Abrasive water jet (AWJ) machining has become an alternative in the purpose of hole cutting with great interests [13–16]. Some efforts have been made for the analysis of hole cutting on fibre reinforced composite in order to optimize machining performances. Better surface qual- ity and dimensional accuracy were suggested at high cutting feed with high abrasive mass flow rate and low jet pressure with low standoff distance during hole cutting [17,18]. This paper demonstrate a study on hole cutting of hybrid car- bon/glass laminate using AWJ. Surface quality and kerf taper of machined hole are analysed by adjusting the parameters like jet pressure, standoff distance and traverse rate. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.11.085 2214-7853/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Mechanical and Energy Technologies. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: rajuiitism@gmail.com (R.K. Thakur). Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Materials Today: Proceedings journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr Please cite this article as: R. K. Thakur, K. K. Singh and J. Ramkumar, Experimental investigation of abrasive waterjet hole cutting on hybrid carbon/glass composite, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.11.085