Research on Matrix Damage of High-pressure Water Jet Cleaning

The impact on the surface, such as damage, must be considered when cleaning the workpiece by high-pressure water jet. If the impact force for cleaning is too strong, it will damage the surface quality of the workpiece. And it will have a negative impact on the precision fit, so that the workpiece can’t meet the requirements for remanufacturing. In this article, select the 45 steel and H13 steel as the experiment materials, which have different hardness. Before and after cleaned by high-pressure water jet, both the surface roughness are measured by white light interferometer and the change is got. After cleaning, the morphology of the surface damage is also observed. The results show that the change of surface quality has nothing to do with the initial surface quality, and it is only influenced by the impact parameter of water jet. The impact of water jet will damage the surface, producing special holes which are smooth in the center and gradually alteration as concave-convex-concave along the radial direction.