An Investigation of Non-Conventional Alternatives for Manufacturing the Specimen for the Tensile Test of Metal Sheets

The usage of alterative non-conventional machining processes, such as laser, plasma, and abrasive water jet (AWJ) cutting, are increasing in many fields. One of these fields is the preparation of the tensile test specimens of metal sheet. Everyone of these three cutting methods has its own effect on the characteristics of the generated specimen. The present work aims to determine their effects on the microhardness, surface roughness and dimensional accuracy as well as tensile test performance. Armox 500T steel and 316ti Stainless steel® metal sheets are used as study materials. Results show that the closest alternative method to the traditional milling for the less changes in the tensile strength and dimensions of test specimens is AWJ.