Journal of Mechanical Working Technology, 17 (1988) 325 - 332

Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam - Printed in The Netherlands 325

ABRASIVE JET MACHINING OF GLASS AT LOW T ~ B A T U P ~

M°K.MuJu, Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department,IIT

Kanpur, India
A.K.Pathak, Production Engineer, SAIL, Ranchl (Bihar),Indla

SUMMARY
The paper presents some recent experimental results on the
machining of glass b y Abrasive Jet Machining while the glass is
cooled to a low temperature by the application of a Jet of
liquid Nitrogen. Material removal rate of glass was found to
be increased under such conditions.

INTRODUCTION
Abrasive Jet Machining (AJM) process finds its successful
application for machining hard and brittle materials. The proc-
ess can be used successfully for producing complicated shapes
and contours° Since brittle materials become more brittle at
low temperature, better machining of glass is expected at low
temperature. The present paper presents some results on machi-
ning of glass at low temperatures.

Brittle Erosion

During solid particle impacts, lateral Cracks are produced

in brittle materials below the impact site as a result of resi-
dual stress field° Erosion loss in brittle materials occurs due
to intersection of lateral cracks from adjacent impacts. The
formation of microcracks, however,in brittle solids under such
situations is a complex process and depends on the physical
properties of target and projectile material and projectile
velocitye
Experimental Procedure and results
In the present work glass slides were machined using Aluml-
nium oxide as the abrasive material. The experiments were
performed on the Abrasive Jet Machine developed at IIT/Kanpur
[i]. Machining operations each repeated 3 times, were conducted
at room temperature as well as at low temperature. Figure (i)

0378 - 3804 /88 /$ 03.50 © 1988 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.

326

Nozzle

W.P

Nz jet

(o) Scheme of low temperature AJM process

._•
Abrasive Abrasive
Plastically
deformed~ ~ )
zone ~ ii > 12
J,t-~ i
Lateral crack f I.--tZ--.I
Low tamp. lateral crock Room temp. lateral crock
(b) Probable schematic diagram of lateral crack

Fig. I AJM of glass at low temperature.

shows the line sketch of the application of liquid Nitrogen to

cool the test sample. Full details of the experimental setup
are detailed elseqhere [2]. In this way keeping all the para-
meters same and varying only the stand-off distances, the machi-
ning process was repeated for the two temperature conditions.
Dimensions ( dia and depth) of each cavity machined were
measured on an optical projector which could give a high accuracy
of measurement. For each cavity produced, mean value of top
diameter and penetration were calculated. Machined cavity was
assumed to be a perfect cone and its volume estimated according-
ly. All the results have been tabulated in Table I.
Results and Discussion

Figures 2,3 and 4 compare the top cavity dia, penetration

and material removal, respectively in both conditions for each
stand off distance. Figure 5 shows variation of material remo-
val rate with stand-off distance. It exhibits that the effect
of low temperature is much significant at small stand-off distam-
ce. Influence of low temperature becomes least at the optimism
M.R.R. condition.
 Table 1
Machining time - 60 sec.
Nozzle material - Tungsten carbide, dia 0o76 mm
Work piece ~aterial - Glass
Carrier Fluld - Dry air
Inlet pressure 2.83 kg/cm~,nozzle pressure - 2.4 kg/cm 2
Abrasive
Type Aluminium oxide, Size - 30 Dm
Mixture ratio 0.268
Vibrator characteristics
Amplitude 1.9 mm, Frequency - 8.33 c/see.

SOD Room Temperature Condition Low Temperature Condition

mm
Cavity top Depth of Volume Cavity top DepTh of Vo I ume
dia (d), penetration removed dia (d) penetration removed
(h), mm ~/12 d2h mm (h) , mm ~/12 d2h
mm 3 ~3
2 1.835 1=326 1o689 2.341 1.78 2.554
4 2=053 1.777 1=961 2.503 2.09 3.428
8 3=101 2.107 5=304 3.562 2.373 7.882
lO 3.727 2.178 7.92 3.76 2.384 8.824
12 3.88 2.33 9o183 4.072 2.267 9.819
i0 3.633 1.487 5.138 3.842 1.885 7.284
 E

t..

¢:
2.0

1.5

I.O
~ (b) Low temperature
b

O. 0.5

, I , I i I , I
0 4 8 12 16
Stand-off distance,ram
Fig. 2 Comparison of penetration

The above results on AJM have established that material remo-

val rate increases at low temperature. These results may be ex-
plained in the following way°

Fracture toughness of bccp hcp and brittle materials decrea-

ses, as its yield strength increa~esp at low temperatures (3).
Strength of glass also increases at low temperature. Hence it is

4.~ --

5.5 a / ~ b
E
E
t,.

@ 2.5
E
°0~
"o //'(o) Room temperature o
1.5 / / / I (b) Low temperature []
o
.t-

o~
>
f
0 0.5
0
, I i l , I i I
0 4 8 12 16

Stand- off distance,ram

Fig.5 Comparison of cavity top diameter

 829

I0-

"6
"~ ture
2 V (b) Low temperature
~E

, I , I , I , I
O 4 8 12 16
Stand- off distance mm

Fig. 4 Comparison of material removed in

6 0 sec.

Volume removal ratio, R

Volume removed at low temp
R •
2.5 -- Volume removed at room temp

i~ 2.0
0

"- 1.5

0
hO
(D
E
:~ 0.5

, I , I , I = I
0 4 8 12 16
Stand-off distance,mm
Fig5 Variation of volume removal ratio
3,~0

reasonable to assume that the fracture toughness of glass will

also decrease at low temperature. It has also been reported that
the elastic modulus and shear modulus increase at low temperature
[4,5,6] and fatigue strength of glass decreases as the temperatu-
re decreases (3).

Several mathematical models of material removal during machi-

ning of brittle materials are available [7,8,9]. These models
consider that the strength or hardness of materials have contro-
lling effect on material removal rate. According to these models,
material removal rate will decrease as the strength or hardness
of materials increase. Since at low temperatures strength of
materials increases significantly, these models do not justify
the present experimental results. Actually, these models being
based on elastic plastic deformation of solids cannot be consi-
dered to be feasible in the present co ntext because at very low
temperature plastic deformation in glass is not possible.

Folly and Levy have reported that erosion rate of steel inc-
reases markely below ductile to ~rittle transition temperature
because of significant decrease in ductility. Pentland and
F ktermanis [i0] have also suggested the use of refrigerated abra-
sive slurry in ultrasonic machining for enhancing material remo-
val rate. Since glass becomes more brittle at low temperatures
there is no question of reduction in erosion rate. Therefore,
the enhancement of lateral crack length as explained below is
considered as a possible explanation.

In the situation of a sphere colliding with a large flat

plate Hertz [12,13] equation (I) gives the average surface pre-
ssure q, during elastic collision as _I~

q = i_~
C-it- + )]4
P
where
= Poisson's ratio of target and particle materials,
respectively.
E, Ep = Modulus of elasticity of target and particle
materials, respectively.
Ui = Particle impingement velocity.
,f = Material density of abrasive particle.
Now,let
= Average surface pressure at low temperature and
ql ' qr
room temperature, respectively
= Poissons ratio of target material at low tempera-
ture and room temperature, respectively.
E1 , Er = Modulus of elasticity of target material at low
temperature and room temperature, respectively.
The ratio of surface pressure at low temperature to the surface
pressure at room temperature expression reduces to

2 2
l- '~r I - ~)p

Er Ep 4/5
qz = [ ]
qr 1 - N 1 i -
P
E1 Ep

At low temperatures modulus of elasticity of glass increases by

15~ and assuming 7/. reduction in Poisson's ratio at these tempe-
rature°

ql
m ~ 1.09
qr

Hence for the same amount of loading the average surface

pressure at low temperature will increase by about 9~. Fracture
toughness of glass decreases at low temperature as considered
earlier. Also, Evans and Wilshow [12] have shown that lateral
crack length increases as the fracture toughness decreases.

To investigate the growth of lateral crack length a t low

temperature, one experiment was conducted. Abrasive Jet machi-
ning was conducted for short time (i0 and 20 seconds) to s e e
the effect of a limited number of impacts on the surface of work-
piece. In short time period of machining very limited abrasive
particles will be effectively eroding %he target. Physical
observation of test samples showed that area of damaged zone w a s
increased at low temperature. This experiment indicates that
lateral crack length has been increased under low temperature
condition. Erosion takes place due to intersection of the lateral
cracks developed in the work piece (Fig. 1). Also, the impac-
ting particle at periphery of the jet are having less momentum
332

energy. Hence they are less effective in eroding the material.

Due to reduction in fracture toughness at low temperature more
particles at periphery become effective. In this way above dis-
cussion can help to confirm the increment of material removal
rate at low temperature.
~onclusions
On the basis of various experimental observations and results
obtained by the author about low temperature machining of glass
it can be concluded that the low temperature machining results
in faster material removal rate. T he reasons are not yet abso-
lutely clear.

REFERENCES
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machining and study of process parameters, 'Ph.D. Thesis
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2o A.K.Pathak,'An Experimental investigation into low tempe-
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4. 'Materials at low temperature,' Edited by Richard R. Reed
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5. W.D.Kingery, H.KoBowen and D.R.Uhlmann,'Introduction to

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