Research on Kerf error of aluminum alloy 6061-T6 cut by abrasive water jet

As the only cold processing technology at present, abrasive water jet (AWJ) has been successfully applied in many industrial fields. However, the tool of the AWJ is a soft knife, which will be deformed during the cutting process, resulting in kerf error, which seriously affects the machining accuracy. At present, the commonly used method to eliminate the kerf error is the taper compensation processing method. However, the contour curve of the kerf is not a straight line in most cases, so that there are still residual errors in the processing of the taper compensation method. In this paper, the residual error is defined as the deviation error, that is, the maximum error of the kerf contour deviating from the taper direction. Based on the experiment of AWJ cutting aluminum alloy 6061-T6, a detailed study is carried out on the influence of processing parameters such as cutting speed, water pressure, abrasive flow rate, and material thickness on the deviation error, and an empirical model of the deviation error is established through data fitting. This will help to better understand the kerf error of AWJ and has important guiding significance for optimizing processing parameters and improving processing accuracy.