Investigations on surface roughness and tribology of miniature brass gears manufactured by abrasive water jet machining

Abstract

Surface roughness parameters are important indicators for determining the operating performance, tribology behavior, wear and tear characteristics, and service life of engineered parts including gears. This article presents the investigation on surface roughness, and tribology and wear aspects of miniature brass gears manufactured by abrasive water jet machining. Experiments have been conducted based on Taguchi's robust design technique with L9 orthogonal array to machine external spur-type miniature gears of brass having 8.4 mm pitch diameter, 12 teeth, and 5 mm thickness. The effect of three important process parameters namely water jet pressure, abrasive mass flow rate, and stand-off distance on mean roughness depth of miniature gears are analyzed. Surface roughness is found to decrease with the increase in the water jet pressure and abrasive mass flow rate, and increases with the increase in the stand-off distance. Particle swarm optimization technique has been used for parametric optimization to minimize the surface roughness of miniature gears. Confirmation experiment conducted at optimized abrasive water jet machining parameters resulted in superfine surface finish with mean roughness depth value of 4.1 µm superior than the finish obtained by other advanced processes for brass gears. The investigated values of bearing area characteristics, skewness, kurtosis, and friction coefficient confirm the tribological fitness of the miniature brass gear machined at optimum abrasive water jet machining parameters.

A Comprehensive Investigation on Development of Lightweight Aluminium Miniature Gears by Thermoelectric Erosion Machining Process

“…Miniature gears are one of the important microparts which have widespread application areas from aerospace to biomedical industries [ 1 , 2 ]. Miniature gears of light materials such as aluminium, brass, bronze, copper, and polymers possess specific characteristics, i.e., light in weight, compact size, good performance and low operating power requirement [ 3 , 4 ]. Their manufacturing quality, especially microgeometry and surface finish, plays a crucial role in this [ 5 ].…”

“…Primarily, the selection of materials and manufacturing processes for a gear mainly depends on the application requirements, cost, and types of gear (i.e., cylindrical, conical, and non-circular gears), and the possible operating conditions. Aluminium is a good candidate material for miniature gears [ 3 ]. 7075 aluminium alloy has certain characteristics such as lightweight, good strength-to-wear-ratio, good machinability, cost-effectiveness, higher thermal conductivity, higher sound and shock absorption ability, non-magnetic nature, and corrosion resistance [ 6 ].…”

“…Miniature gears made of aluminium are usually used for high-speed and low-to-medium power transmission [ 4 ]. These gears reduce weight and cost and are comprehensively used in several fields such as automotive, food processing, chemical plants, miniaturized gear-pump, gearbox, gear-reducer, actuators, toys, and in several domestic appliances [ 3 , 7 ].…”

“…Further, improvement in the quality of gears made by these conventional processes needs the assistance of grinding, honing, lapping, and shaving type of finishing processes, which elongates the process chain and adds extra cost. This challenge is being addressed by the researchers and new processes are being exploited [ 3 , 8 ].…”

Influence of Variable Radius of Cutting Head Trajectory on Quality of Cutting Kerf in the Abrasive Water Jet Process for Soda–Lime Glass

“…Under normal conditions, this value is lower, which means that the method of machining materials being discussed may be considered as relatively accurate. Given the above, AWJ, which is a universal technological tool, provides itself with a wider range of machining applications, enabling the shaping of many types of materials, such as metals and its alloys [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ], ceramic, glass [ 20 ], composites [ 21 , 22 ], flammable materials, leather, and natural stone-based materials [ 23 ], as well as regenerating the cutting ability of grinding tools [ 24 ]. Nevertheless, there is still a need for further research related to this technology in order to increase the efficiency of material machining.…”