Development of operations in waterjet technology: a review

ABSTRACTWaterjet technology has gained much attention due to its ability to cut almost every material. The development of operations like milling, spot welding, polishing, etc. has further increased their application areas. Hence, this work deals with a vast review of newly developed operations in waterjet that will serve as a complete source of information for the same. The most relevant 221 research articles were collected from 1960 to 2023 and reviewed. In this work, the entire waterjet technology is divided into two domains: pure waterjet (abrasiveless) and abrasive waterjet. The pure waterjet (WJ) section dealt with WJ peening and WJ spot welding. The findings of the literature review showed that pure waterjet operations are mostly used for non-erosion applications, where the intensity of the water hammer effect is used for welding or peening. In the case of abrasive waterjet (AWJ), the erosion of material occurs to a greater extent. And controlling the rate of erosion gives rise to operations like polishing, milling, drilling, and turning, which are discussed in detail. The challenges faced by the authors and the possible solutions in all the operations of pure and abrasive waterjet are also discussed in detail.KEYWORDS: Abrasive waterjetroughnessAWJ millingAWJ drillingAWJ turning Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.