The use of carbon fiber-reinforced composites is increasing today since they have an excellent weight-to-mechanical properties ratio. Traditional machining of this material is difficult. Abrasive water jet machining (AWJM) is an advanced non-traditional material removal process that can machine hard-to-cut materials. The process is widely used in aerospace, marine, and automotive industries. However, it encounters several challenges when cutting carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP). The present work aims to study the characteristics of AWJM of CFRP laminates. Detailed experimental investigations are conducted to explore the effect of traverse feed and standoff distance (SOD) on top kerf width, bottom kerf width, kerf angle, profile area, volumetric removal rate, and the average surface roughness, and jet deviation factor. Repeatability tests are also used to assess the kerf dimensional accuracy and surface roughness tolerance achieved by AWJM of CFRP laminates. Results showed that the surface roughness increases along with the cut thickness, especially at large traverse feed and SOD. Both the kerf taper angle and the volumetric removal rate increase with traverse feed and SOD.

In this study, a comparison between ultrasonic-assisted drilling (UAD) and conventional drilling (CD) is presented under different feed rates using thrust force, torque, and hole geometrical errors as output responses. The experiments were done on plates of Inconel 601 (nickel-based superalloy), which is classified as a difficult-to-cut alloy due to its high Nickel content (60%), high hardness (43 HRC), and low thermal conductivity. The experiments were performed using DMG Mori Ultrasonic 20 linear, which is equipped with ultrasonic tool holderoscillating at 20 kHz with 7 μm amplitude. A coated carbide single margin twist drill had been used in the experiments. Full factorial design of experiments approach was employed, and the results had been statistically analyzed to find the most significant factor affecting the process responses. The results showed that the ultrasonic assistance had reduced the thrust force, and torque compared to conventional drilling (CD). Also, a reduction in holecylindricity error was detectedduring UAD, whichimprovesthe hole quality. In case of UAD, twist drills did not suffer from a physical wear, however notch wear was observed in CD drills. Chip morphology was also studied. Short segmented chips were obtained when using UAD which improved chip evacuation and reduced the chance of chip jamming in the drill flutes.