Clarifying the influence of the dress process parameters of the abrasive water jet on the dressing effect of fixed-abrasive pads (FAPs) is a prerequisite for online controllable dressing of abrasive water jets. This paper uses three factors and three horizontal response surface methods to explore the influence of jet pressure, abrasive concentration, and nozzle angle on FAP dressing quality. The prediction model of the material removal rate of a FAP machined using three process parameters is established. The influence of pairwise interactions of the three process parameter variables on the dressing effect and the optimal process parameters under each target is analyzed. Finally, the optimal process parameters predicted by the model are verified by experiments. The results show that the best dressing parameters with the MRR of the workpiece as the response value are as follows: jet pressure 3.8 MPa, abrasive concentration 3%, and nozzle angle 73°. The predicted value of the optimal process performance is 464.574 nm/min, and the experimental verification result is 469.136 nm/min; the error between the experimental value and the predicted value is within a reasonable range.
Keywords: FAP; abrasive water jet; dressing; optimization; response surface method.