Analysis of Kerf Quality Characteristics of Kevlar Fiber-Reinforced Polymers Cut by Abrasive Water Jet.

Abstract

Abrasive water jet machining has become an indispensable process for cutting Kevlar fiber-reinforced polymers used in applications such as ballistics protection, race cars, and protective gloves. The complex and diffuse action of a large number of input parameters leads to the need to evaluate the quality characteristics of the technological transformation as a result of the deployment of experimental studies adapted to the specific processing conditions. Thus, the paper focuses on identifying the influence of different factors and modeling their action on the characteristics that define the quality of the cut parts, such as the kerf taper angle and the <i>Ra</i> roughness parameter, by applying statistical methods of design and analysis of experiments.