NONTRADITIONAL (OR)

UNCONVENTIONAL MACHINING
 Basics
• Machining is a broad term to describe removal of material
from a work piece.

Machining categories:

• Cutting involves single-point or multipoint cutting

tools, each with a clearly defined geometry.

• Abrasive processes, such as grinding.

• Nontraditional machining, utilizing electrical,

chemical, and optical sources of energy.
 Need for Non-Conventional Machining

The requirements that lead to the development of nontraditional

machining.

• Very high hardness and strength of the material. (above 400 HB.)

• The work piece is too flexible or slender to support the cutting or

grinding forces.

• The shape of the part is complex, such as internal and external profiles,
or small diameter holes.

• Surface finish or tolerance better than those obtainable conventional

process.

• Temperature rise or residual stress in the work piece are undesirable.

• The non-conventional manufacturing processes are not
affected by hardness, toughness or brittleness of material and
can produce any intricate shape on any workpiece material by
suitable control over the various physical parameters of the
processes.

• The non-conventional manufacturing processes may be

classified on the basis of type of energy namely, mechanical,
electrical, chemical, thermal or magnetic, apply to the
workpiece directly and have the desired shape transformation
or material removal from the work surface by using different
scientific mechanism.
• Conventional machining involves the direct contact of tool and work -
piece, whereas unconventional machining does not require the direct
contact of tool and work piece.

• Conventional machining has many disadvantages like tool wear which are
not present in Non-conventional machining.

Examples : Electric arc machining, Laser cutting , electro discharge

machining, plasma cutting etc

Advantages of Non-conventional machining:

1) High accuracy and surface finish

2) no direct contact of tool and workpiece, so there is less/no wear
3) tool life is more
4 ) quieter operation

Disadvantages of non-conventional machining:

1) high cost
2) complex set-up
3) most of the machines are numerical operated
 Classifications
1. Type of energy required, namely, mechanical, electrical,
chemical etc.

2. Basic mechanism involved in the processes, like erosion, ionic

dissolution, vaporisation etc.

3. Source of immediate energy required for material removal,

namely, hydrostatic pressure, high current density, high
voltage, ionised material, etc.

4. Medium for transfer of those energies, like high velocity

particles, electrolyte, electron, hot gases, etc.
• Ultrasonic Machining (USM)
• Water-Jet Machining & Abrasive-Jet
• Chemical Machining
• Electrochemical Machining (ECM)
• Electrical-Discharge Machining (EDM)
• High-Energy-Beam Machining
– Laser-beam machining (LBM)
– Electron-beam machining (EBM)
Water Jet Machining
 Water Jet Machining (WJM)
• WJM also called hydrodynamic machining.

• Cutting Tool- a high velocity stream of water

• Non-metallic materials-Limited to cut only non-metallic

materials under the jet stream consists of solely of water.

• Harder Material – Abrasive particles are injected into the

water stream, know as A-WJM.

• A-WJM has expanded the range of fluid jet machining to

include the cutting of metals, glass and ceramics.
• Water Jet Machining (WJM) and Abrasive Water Jet Machining
(AWJM) are two non-traditional or non-conventional
machining processes. Very thin stream (0.004-0.010 dia)

• In water jet machining process the kinetic energy of high

velocity water stream is used for material removal form the
work piece

• Pure water is very well suited for cutting of soft, and sensitive
materials in a very precise manner.

• Water jet erodes work at kerf line into small particle

 Equipments
Fig 1 illustrates the major components of a WJM system, major
components are

• Hydraulic unit
• Intensifier
• Accumulator
• Filters
• Water transmission lines
• On/off valve
• Water jet nozzles
• Abrasive water jet nozzle
• Water jet catchers
• Fluid additives
• Hydraulic unit
• Consists of an electrically drive, variable-
displacement.
• Pressure –compensated hydraulic pump.
• Typical hydraulic pressure are adjustable about
20 MPa.

• Intensifier
To increase the water pressure up to 380MPa
• Accumulator or shock attenuator

• Is plumbed in parallel with higher pressure

output of the intensifier.
• Collects water at high pressure and thus
minimizes the fluctuation of water pressure
arising due to the change in direction of larger
piston within the intensifier.
• Filters
• Protect the nozzle orifice from possible
damage by foreign material.
• For most application inlet water is
mechanically filtered to 0.45 μm.
• Water transmission lines
• Consist of flexible hose, hard tubing, swivel,
and flex joints.
• Capable of operating at 380MPa.
• Hard tubing -typically SS with an inside to
outside diameter ratio of 1:3.
• On/off valve
• To turn the jet stream on or off.
• Tightness of the valve is important in
applications that do not allow fluid on the
workpiece.
• The response time of the valve is also
important.
• Water jet nozzles

• Fig 4 show the basic component of a typical water jet

nozzle.

• The collimating chamber helps to reduce the

divergence of the water jet once it exits the orifice.

• The quality of the orifice edge is also crucial in

producing a coherent water jet.

• It should be protected from the foreign material in the

water.
• Material of orifice; man made sapphire.

• Size- as small as 0.075mm are available.

• Diamond orifices- operate ten times as long as the

sapphire orifice before replacement.

• Reduces numbers of shutdowns

• It can be cleaned several times and will continue to

produce a coherent high pressure jet.

• Cost – 7 to 10 times of a sapphire orifice.

• Abrasive water jet nozzle

• Addition of an abrasive jet nozzle and an abrasive feed

mechanism make process; A-WJM System

• Pressure- abrasive added to high pressure water jet in

a mixing chamber.

• When the high velocity water jet passes through the

mixing chamber, the high flow creates an area of low
pressure, which draws the abrasive from a deliver line.
• At the mixing chamber, the abrasive is randomly
mixed with the high pressure water jet, which is
then refocused through as secondary nozzle.

• Size of Secondary nozzle : 0.75 to 2.5mm in

diameter.

• The power of the water jet ranges from 7 to 45 kW

(10 to 60 hp).

• Abrasives types : Garnet, olivine sand, in some

cases silica sand.
• Water jet catchers

• Container normally referred as catchers.

• The water-jet/abrasive water-jet must be trapped and dissipated as

it exits the material being cut.

• It reduces noise associated with break up of the jet after it passes

through the target material.

• Mist or splash back can be a problem if proper catcher systems are

not used.

• Size – must be deep enough so that the water-jet break up before

reaching the bottom.

• Normally requires a depth of 300 to 600 mm.

• Shorter tanks with steel balls or replaceable hard inserts at the

bottom can be used where space it limited.
• Fluid additives

• are sometimes used to aid coherency of the water jet.

• Long-chain polymers are used as additives.

• However less than 1 % of the installation worldwide

use the additives.
 WATER JET CUTTING METHODOLOGIES

1. WJM – Pure

1. WJM - with stabilizer

2. AWJM – entrained – three phase – abrasive, water

and air

3. AWJM – suspended – two phase – abrasive and

water
• Direct pumping
• Indirect pumping
• Bypass pumping
1. WJM – Pure
Tap water is used
As soon as the high velocity of water jet comes out of the
orifice, it entrains with the atmospheric air and flares out,
decreasing its ability to cut

2. WJM - with stabilizer

Long chain polymers added to the water.
Hinder the fragmentation of water jet
3. AWJM- ENTRAINED
• In entrained AWJM, the abrasive water jet, which finally
comes from the focussing tube or nozzle, can be used to
machine different materials.

• Mixing means gradual entrainment of abrasive particles

within the water jet and finally the abrasive water jet comes
out of the focussing tube or the nozzle.

• During mixing process, the abrasive particles are gradually

accelerated due to transfer of momentum from the water
phase to abrasive phase and when the jet finally leaves the
focussing tube, both phases, water and abrasive, are assumed
to be at same velocity.
4. AWJM- SUSPENDED
• In suspension AWJM, preformed mixture of water and
abrasive particles is pumped to a sufficiently high pressure
and store in pressure vessel.

• Then the premixed high-pressure water and abrasive is

allowed to discharge from a nozzle to form abrasive water jet.
 WATER QUALITY REQUIRMENT
PROBLEMS:

At high pressure if the water contains any solid particulates damages the nozzle
And slight change chemistry affect the erosion resistance.

SOLUTIONS:
1. WATER SOFTENING TREATMENT
2. USING RO
3. USING DEIONIZING CIRCUIT
Processes Characteristics

• Important Process parameters

1. Pressure, flow and nozzle diameter
2. Pressure drop
3. Standoff distance
4. Traverse rate
5. Type and size of abrasive, if used.
• Pressure, flow and nozzle diameter

• The flow rate and the pressure of the water jet have
different effect on cutting.

• The flow rate affects the rate of material removal (MRR),

while the pressure affects not only the MRR but also the
cutting mechanism, which shears material away from the
workpiece.

• This is apparent coz high flow rate at low pressure will not
cut.
• Pressure of the water jet determines the avg. kinetic
energy of a particle in the water jet.

• At higher pressure, the avg. kinetic energy of the water

molecules is higher and is more likely to overcome the
molecular binding forces of the workpiece material.

• Therefore, the water jet pressure required for cutting the

must increases as the strength of workpiece increases.
• Increase in either the pressure or the orifice diameter
produced a lager flow rate, which increases the cutting rate

or

• The ability to cut thicker workpiece by increasing the total

energy available at nozzle.

• Larger the pressure also increases the energy density of the

water jet.
• Pressure drop :

• It has little affect on system operation.

• For A-WJM, nozzles are generally larger and a significant

pressure drop can occur with higher flow rate.

• Pressure drop reduce available energy at nozzle, thus

reducing cutting efficiency.
• Standoff distance:

• The distance between the nozzle and workpiece is

generally 2.5 to 6.35mm.

• Stand off distance can be increased to 25 mm without

significantly affecting material removal.

• Stand off distance should be increase to about 50mm for a

material susceptible to shattering or delaminating such as
PCM or for application requiring a smoother cut.
• Traverse rate:

• Thicker and denser materials can be cut as

traverse rate decreased.

• Materials that are tool thick to be cut in a

single pass be cut with multiple passes if the
first pass can be produce a well defined slot.
• Abrasives:
• When used, also affect the cutting capabilities
of the WJM process.
MATERIAL REMOVAL Mechanism
IN AWJM OF DUCTILE MATERIALS,
MATERIAL IS MAINLY REMOVED BY LOW
ANGLE IMPACT BY ABRASIVE PARTICLES
LEADING TO PLOUGHING AND MICRO
CUTTING.

AT HIGHER ANGLE OF IMPACT, THE

MATERIAL REMOVAL INVOLVES PLASTIC
FAILURE OF THE MATERIAL AT THE SIGHT
OF IMPACT .

IN CASE OF AWJM OF BRITTLE MATERIALS,

OTHER THAN THE ABOVE TWO MODELS,
MATERIAL WOULD BE REMOVED DUE TO
CRACK INITIATION AND PROPAGATION
BECAUSE OF BRITTLE FAILURE OF THE
MATERIAL.
 Hashish [8] proposed a general erosion process
MATERIAL REMOVAL model in which the cutting process
proceeds in a cyclic manner with steady material
removal up to a critical depth hc followed by the
formation and removal of steps as the cutting depth
increases.

Below this critical depth, the material removal

process is unsteady, resulting in the formation of
striations or waviness on the wall of the cut surface.

According to this model, the removal process for

ductile materials is mainly due to micro cutting at
the top of the work piece and plastic deformation
that takes place at the bottom of the kerf.

Above Fig shows the primary and secondary cutting

zones where the wear cutting and deformation
cutting modes respectively take place.
Mathematics of AWJM and WJM
• Mixing of abrasives and water jet
Mixing process may be mathematically modelled as follows. Taking into
account the energy loss during water jet formation at the orifice, the water
jet velocity may be given as,

Where,

The velocity of the water jet formed can be estimated, assuming no losses as
using Bernoulli’s equation

where, Pw is the water pressure and ρw is the density of water.

During mixing process as has been discussed both momentum and
energy are not conserved due to losses that occur during mixing. But
initially it would be assumed that no losses take place in momentum, i.e.,
momentum of the jet before and after mixing is conserved.
The momentum of air before and after mixing will be neglected
due to very low density. Further, it is assumed that after mixing
both water and abrasive phases attain the same velocity of Vwj.
Moreover, when the abrasive particles are fed into the water jet
through the port of the mixing chamber, their velocity is also
very low and their momentum can be neglected.
As during mixing process momentum loss occurs as the abrasives
collide with the water jet and at the inner wall of the focusing tube
multiple times before being entrained, velocity of abrasive water jet is
given as,
MRR
The power of the abrasive phase of the abrasive
water jet can be estimated as,
Thus it may be assumed that the material removal rate is
proportional to the power of abrasive phase of AWJ. The water
phase does not contribute to material removal in AWJM.
1

3
1

3
 Advantages
• No work hardening or thermal effects or NO HAZ

• Small kerf width/Saves raw materials

• Multilayer cutting while maintaining quality of cut for all layers.

• Capable of cutting variety of materials without substantial change

in system components.

• Pre drilling is not required when shape cutting.

• Reduction or elimination of airborne dust/ Environmentally friendly

• Omni-directional cutting--ability to cut in any direction

• Net-shape or near-net shape parts with no secondary

processing required in many applications

• Minimal fixturing required

• Provides stress-free cutting

 Disadvantage
• Non metallic materials effectively cut by WJM, this
disadvantage is partly addressed by A-WJM, which can cut
harder and denser materials.

• Very thick parts can not be cut with waterjet cutting and still
hold dimensional accuracy.

• If the part is too thick, the jet may dissipate some, and cause
it to cut on a diagonal, or to have a wider cut at the bottom of
the part than the top. It can also cause a rough wave pattern
on the cut surface.
Waterjet lag
REMEDY OR ADVANCES IN THE PROCESS

The study indicates that improvements in the cutting

performance can be achieved by using oscillation cutting by
correctly selecting the process and oscillation parameters. The
results also indicate that:

1. Higher depth of cut and surface quality can be achieved

when cutting with comparatively higher frequency of
oscillation and lower angle of oscillations.
2. The optimum angle of oscillation is in the range 1 to 3
degrees while the highest frequency of oscillation that can be
used effectively is limited to 10 Hz.
3. The results found here assist in the development of a general
model for the cutting process
 Water jet Applications
Water jet machining has a wider variety of applications when
lower strength materials are involved. Applications include the
following:

• Cutting of the PCBs

• Cutting of lightweight fiber-reinforced plastics
• Integration into robotic systems
• Crosscutting
• Cutting foods/Cutting frozen meat
• Cutting web materials.
• Textile, Leather industry
• Surgery
 A-WJM applications
• Cutting of tool steels
• Cutting of inconel
• Fatigue test coupons
• Carbon fiber
 APPLICATION
Materials

• Steels • Non-ferrous alloys

• Ti alloys, Ni- alloys • Polymers

• Honeycombs • Metal Matrix Composite

• Ceramic Matrix Composite • Concrete

• Stone – Granite • Wood

• Reinforced plastics • Metal Polymer Laminates

• Glass Fibre Metal Laminates

APPLICATIONS
https://www.kmtwaterjet.com/90000-psi-vs-55000-60000-psi.aspx
 Exercise
• Comparison of WJM/A-WJM with Laser,
Plasma, Gas cutting & EDM
 COMPARISION
PROPERTY OXY FUEL PLASMA LASER WATER JET/
CUTTING CUTTING CUTTING AWJM

THICKNESS ABOVE 5mm Upto 160 mm dry Thin and M.S. – 25mm
OF JOB and upto and 120 mm medium plates High alloy
medium under water steel – 15mm
thicknesses
Al – 10mm
SPEED Low Very high even High for thin Very low
for high strength plates
materials
HEAT Very high HAZ Lower than oxy Very small HAZ No HAZ no
IMPACT ON and high fuel for high warpage
MATERIAL warpage strength material
KERF - Wider than laser Small cutting Narrow kerf
and water jet kerf (0.2-0.3
mm)
 COMPARISION
PROPERTY OXY FUEL PLASMA LASER WATER JET/
CUTTING CUTTING CUTTING AWJM

QUALITY Bad and low Good High Very high and

AND accuracy And lower than extremely
ACCURACY water jet accurate

COST Low Medium High High

MATERIAL All except SS All materials All materials All materials

and CI
COMPLEXIT BAD RESULT MEDIUM MEDIUM VERY GOOD
Y OF JOB RESULT
Abrasive Jet Machining (AJM)
 Introduction
 A stream of abrasive grains (Al2O3 or SiC) is carried by high pressure
gas or air (compressed).
 Impinges on the work surface at very high velocity through a nozzle of
0.3 to 0.5 mm diameter.
 Sand Blasting (SB) - a similar process
 The major differences between are SB and AJM
(i) smaller diameter abrasives
(ii) a more finely controlled delivery system
 Material removal – by mechanical abrasion action of the high velocity
abrasive particles.
 Best suited for hole drilling in superhard materials.
 Typically used to cut, clean, deburr, deflash and etch glass, ceramics
and other hard materials.

83
Machining System

84
 Machining System – Contd.
 A gas (Nitrogen, CO2 or air) is supplied at 2 – 8 kg/cm2
 Oxygen should never be used. (because, it causes violent
chemical action with the workpiece chips or abrasive particles).
 Gas passes through a mixing chamber after filtration and
regulation.
 In the mixing chamber, abrasive particles (10 – 40 m) are present
and vibrated at 50 Hz.
 Amplitude of vibration – to control the feed rate of abrasives.
 (Gas + abrasives) - passed through a 0.45 mm diameter tungsten
carbide nozzle at a speed of 150 – 300 m/s.
 The nozzle is directed over the area to be machined.

85
 Machining System – Contd.
 Aluminium oxide (Al2O3) and silicon carbide (SiC) powders are
used for heavy cleaning, cutting and deburring.
 Magnesium carbonate is recommended for use in light cleaning
and etching.
 Sodium bicorbonate – fine cleaning and cutting of soft materials.
 Commercial grade powders are not suitable – b’cos their sizes are
not well classified. Also, they may contain silica which can cause a
health hazard.
 Abrasive powders are not reused. B’cos, contaminations and worn
grits will reduce the machining rate (MRR).
 The nozzle stand off distance is 0.81 mm.

86
 Machining System – Contd.
 Relative motion between nozzle and workpiece – can be manual
 Or automatically controlled using cam drives, tracer mechanisms
or using computer controlled according to the cut geometry
required.

 Intricate and precise shapes can be produced using masks with

corresponding contours.

 Dust removal or collecting equipment must be incorporated to

protect the environment.

87
 Material Removal

 The abrasive particles from the nozzle follow parallel paths for a short distance
 Then the abrasive jet flares outward like a narrow cone.
 When the sharp-edged abrasive particles of Al2O3 or SiC hit a brittle and
fragile material at high speed, tiny brittle fractures are created from which
small particles dislodge.
 The dislodged particles are carried away by the air or gas.

88
 Material Removal Rate
 Material or Volumetric Removal Rate (MRR or VRR) is given by the
formula

89
 Process Parameters
 MRR, machining accuracy, surface roughness and nozzle wear are influenced
by
 Size and distance of the nozzle.
 Composition, strength, size, and shape of abrasives
 Flow rate
 Composition, pressure, and velocity of the carrier gas.
 MRR is mainly dependent on the flow rate and size of abrasives.
 Larger grain sizes produce greater removal rates.
 At a particular pressure, the VRR increases with the abrasive flow rate up to an
optimum value and then decreases with any further increase in flow rate.
 The mass flow rate of the gas decreases with an increase in the abrasive flow
rate
 Hence the mixing ratio increases and causes a decrease in the removal rate
because of the decreasing energy available for material removal.

90
 Process Parameters – Contd.
 Typical MRR is 16.4 mm3/min when cutting glass.
 Cutting rates for metals vary from 1.6 to 4.1 mm3/min.
 For harder ceramics, cutting rates are about 50 percent higher than those for
glass – 24.6 mm3/min.
 The minimum width of cut can be 0.13 mm.
 Tolerances are typically within  0.05 mm by using good fixation and motion
control.
 Attainable surface roughness - 0.2 to 1.5 µm using 10 and 50 µm particles,
respectively.
 Taper is present in deep cuts.
 High nozzle pressures result in a greater removal rate, but the nozzle life is
decreased.

91
Process Characteristics

92
 Applications
 Drilling holes, cutting slots, cleaning hard surfaces, deburring, polishing,

and radiusing.

 Deburring of cross holes, slots, and threads in small precision parts that require
a burr-free finish, such as hydraulic valves, aircraft fuel systems, and medical
appliances.

 Machining intricate shapes or holes in sensitive, brittle, thin, or difficult-to-

machine materials.

 Insulation stripping and wire cleaning without affecting the conductor.

 Micro-deburring of hypodermic needles.

 Frosting glass and trimming of circuit boards, hybrid circuit resistors,

capacitors, silicon, and gallium.

 Removal of films and delicate cleaning of irregular surfaces because the

93
abrasive stream is able to follow contours.
 Advantages
 Because AJM is a cool machining process, it is best suited for machining brittle
and heat-sensitive materials like glass, quartz, sapphire, and ceramics.

 The process is used for machining superalloys and refractory materials.

 It is not reactive with any workpiece material.

 Intricate parts of sharp corners can be machined.

 The machined materials do not experience hardening.

 No initial hole is required for starting the operation as required by wire EDM.

 Material utilization is high.

 It can machine thin materials.

94
 Limitations
 The removal rate is slow.

 Stray cutting can’t be avoided (low accuracy of  0.1 mm).

 The tapering effect may occur especially when drilling in metals.

 The abrasive may get impeded in the work surface.

 Suitable dust-collecting systems should be provided.

 Soft materials can’t be machined by the process.

 Silica dust may be a health hazard.

 Ordinary shop air should be filtered to remove moisture and oil.

95
Ultrasonic Machining (USM)
 Ultrasonic waves: Magnetostrictive transducers
 Magnetostrictive transducers use the inverse magnetostrictive effect to convert
magnetic energy into ultrasonic energy.

 This is accomplished by applying a strong alternating magnetic field to certain

metals, alloys and ferrites.

Ultrasonic waves: Piezoelectric Transducers

 Piezoelectric transducers employ the inverse piezoelectric effect using
natural or synthetic single crystals (such as quartz) or ceramics (such as
barium titanate) which have strong piezoelectric behavior.

 Ceramics have the advantage over crystals in that they are easier to shape
by casting, pressing and extruding.
 Principle of Ultrasonic Machining
 In the process of Ultrasonic Machining,
material is removed by micro-chipping or
erosion with abrasive particles.

 In USM process, the tool, made of softer

material than that of the workpiece, is
oscillated by the Booster and Sonotrode at a
frequency of about 20 kHz with an amplitude
of about 25.4 um (0.001 in).

 The tool forces the abrasive grits, in the gap

between the tool and the workpiece, to impact
normally and successively on the work
surface, thereby machining the work surface.
 Principle of Ultrasonic Machining

Standard mechanism used in most of the universal Ultrasonic machines

 Principle of Ultrasonic Machining
 During one strike, the tool moves down from its most upper remote
position with a starting speed at zero, then it speeds up to finally reach
the maximum speed at the mean position.

 Then the tool slows down its speed and eventually reaches zero again at
the lowest position.

 When the grit size is close to the mean position, the tool hits the grit with
its full speed.

 The smaller the grit size, the lesser the momentum it receives from the
tool.

 Therefore, there is an effective speed zone for the tool and,

correspondingly there is an effective size range for the grits.
 Principle of Ultrasonic Machining
 In the machining process, the tool, at some point, impacts on the largest
grits, which are forced into the tool and workpiece.

 As the tool continues to move downwards, the force acting on these grits
increases rapidly, therefore some of the grits may be fractured.

 As the tool moves further down, more grits with smaller sizes come in
contact with the tool, the force acting on each grit becomes less.

 Eventually, the tool comes to the end of its strike, the number of grits
under impact force from both the tool and the workpiece becomes
maximum.

 Grits with size larger than the minimum gap will penetrate into the tool
and work surface to different extents according to their diameters and the
hardness of both surfaces.
 Abrasive Slurry

 The abrasive slurry contains fine abrasive grains. The grains are usually
boron carbide, aluminum oxide, or silicon carbide ranging in grain size
from 100 for roughing to 1000 for finishing. (150 microns to 5 microns)

 It is used to microchip or erode the work piece surface and it is also used
to carry debris away from the cutting area.
 Tool holder
• The shape of the tool holder is cylindrical or conical, or a modified cone
which helps in magnifying the tool tip vibrations.

• In order to reduce the fatigue failures, it should be free from nicks,

scratches and tool marks and polished smooth.

 Tool
 Tool material should be tough and ductile. Low carbon steels and stainless
steels give good performance.

 Tools are usually 25 mm long ; its size is equal to the hole size minus
twice the size of abrasives.

 Mass of tool should be minimum possible so that it does not absorb the
ultrasonic energy.
 Materials that can be machined on USM
 Hard materials like stainless steel, glass, ceramics, carbide, quatz and semi-
conductors are machined by this process.

 It has been efficiently applied to machine glass, ceramics, precision minerals

stones, tungsten.

 Brittle materials

Applications
 It is mainly used for
 (1) drilling
 (2) grinding,
 (3) Profiling
 (4) coining
 (5) piercing of dies
Advantages of USM Disadvantages of USM
 Machining any materials regardless of
their conductivity
 USM has low material removal
rate.
 USM apply to machining semi-
conductor such as silicon, germanium
etc.  Tool wears fast in USM.

 Machining area and depth is

 USM is suitable to precise machining restraint in USM.
brittle material.

 USM does not produce electric,

thermal, chemical abnormal surface.

 Can drill circular or non-circular holes

in very hard materials

 Less stress because of its non-thermal

characteristics