Experimental study on abrasive recycling in cutting with abrasive suspension water jet

As the only cold high-energy beam machining technology, abrasive water jet cutting has a lot of unique advantages to process a large variety of materials. The main factor restricting its development and application refers to its high processing cost. Abrasive consumption is considered as one of the main costs. Abrasive recycling is an effective way for reducing the cost. In addition, it is also beneficial to environmental protection. Abrasive suspension water jet (ASJ) is more suitable for abrasive recycling than traditional abrasive water jet (AWJ) because ASJ does not use dry abrasives. Based on the idea of strive for the recycling process simple and effective, the abrasive recycling of ASJ was studied in this work. It is found that the recycled abrasives with only big particle impurity being sieved out still have strong cutting ability. An simplified abrasive recovery scheme of ASJ cutting system has been proved to be feasible. With 30% of recharge in each cycle, the abrasive can be fully utilized and its cutting performance can remain basically the same in every reuse cycle of continuously recycling process. The abrasives between 90 and 180 μm are optimal abrasives for the cutting surface roughness, compared with the larger size abrasives; the smaller size abrasives have more negative influence on the surface roughness, which should be concerned in the recycling process.