Manufacturing processes can be broadly

divided into two groups

primary manufacturing processes and
secondary manufacturing processes.
The former ones provide basic shape and
size to the material as per designers
requirement. Casting, forming, powder
metallurgy are such processes to name a
few.
Secondary manufacturing processes provide
the final shape and size with tighter control
on dimension, surface characteristics etc.
Material removal processes are mainly the
secondary manufacturing processes.
 Conventional Machining Processes mostly
remove material in the form of chips by
applying forces on the work material with a
wedge shaped cutting tool that is harder than
the work material under machining condition.
Such forces induce plastic deformation within
the work piece leading to shear deformation
along the shear plane and chip formation.
Thus the major characteristics of conventional
machining are:
Generally macroscopic chip formation by
shear deformation
Material removal takes place due to
application of cutting forces energy domain
can be classified as mechanical
Cutting tool is harder than work piece at
room temperature as well as under machining
conditions

Conventional machining method :
Conventional machines requires direct
contact of tool and work piece/material. For
example to cut an aluminium bar, an iron fast
rotating cutter may be used. These methods
involves a physical contact between the
cutting tool and the material being cut or
processed.
 Machining processes that involve chip
formation have a number of inherent
limitations which limit their application in
industry.
Large amounts of energy are expended to
produce unwanted chips which must be
removed and discarded.
Much of the machining energy ends up as
undesirable heat that often produces
problems of distortion and surface
cracking.
Cutting forces require that the work piece
be held which can also lead distortion.
An unconventional machining process (or non-
traditional machining process) is a special type
of machining process in which there is no direct
contact between the tool and the work piece.
In unconventional machining, a form of energy
is used to remove unwanted material from a
given work piece.
 Non-traditional manufacturing processes is
defined as a group of processes that remove
excess material by various techniques
involving mechanical, thermal, electrical or
chemical energy or combinations of these
energies but do not use a sharp cutting tools
as it needs to be used for traditional
manufacturing processes.
 Non Traditional Machining (NTM) Processes
on the other hand are characterized as
follows:
Material removal may occur with chip formation or even no
chip formation may take place. For example in Abrasive Jet
Machining, chips are of microscopic size and in case of
Electrochemical machining material removal occurs due to
electrochemical dissolution at atomic level
In NTM, there may not be a physical tool present. For example
in laser jet machining, machining is carried out by laser beam.
However in Electrochemical Machining there is a physical tool
that is very much required for machining
 In NTM, the tool need not be harder than the work
piece material. For example, in EDM, copper is used as
the tool material to machine hardened steels.
Mostly NTM processes do not necessarily use
mechanical energy to provide material removal. They
use different energy domains to provide machining. For
example, in USM, AJM, WJM mechanical energy is
used to machine material, whereas in ECM
electrochemical dissolution constitutes material
removal.
 Complex geometries beyond simple planar
or cylindrical features
Parts with extreme surface finish and
tolerance requirements
Delicate components that cannot withstand
large cutting forces
Parts without producing burrs or inducing
residual stresses
Brittle materials or materials with very high
hardness
 In comparison, NTM processes typically have lower
feed rates and require more power consumption
when compared to machining.
A major advantage of some NTM processes is that
feed rate is independent of the material being
processed. As a result, these processes are often
used for difficult to machine materials.
NTM processes typically have better accuracy and
surface finish with the ability of some processes to
machine larger feature sizes at lower capital costs.
In most applications, NTM requires part specific
tooling while general purpose cutting and work
holding tools make machining very flexible.
 Conventional machining process involved tool wearing as
there is a physical contact between the tool and the work
piece. In non-conventional process, this is not the case.

Non-conventional tools are more accurate and precise than

the conventional tool.

No noise pollution is created as a result of non-conventional

methods as these tools are much quieter.

Tool life is long for non-conventional processing.

 Non-conventional tools are very expensive than the
conventional tools.

Non-conventional tools have complex setup and hence

requires a skillful operation by expert workers, whereas
conventional tools do not require any special expert for its
operation and are quite simple in set-up.
Spare parts of conventional machines are easily available but
not for non-conventional machines.
 Limitations of Conventional processes
Machining invariably uses K.E., i.e., forces and
motions. Forces are accompanied by friction,
heat, vibration, deflection etc.
These lead to tool wear, inaccuracy (precise and
miniature features not possible), poor surface
finish, surface integrity (surface cracks, residual
stresses, hot spots), low MRR. Motions limit the
shape and size of the realizable features.
 Eg.: Square holes, small but deep holes
required in turbine blades, simple features
in deep areas were the rotating tool cannot
reach. NTM use simpler motions with
special tools.
 Non circular blind holes
Normal size but deep hole drilling
Micro drilling
Three dimensional contour in a die
Elliptical piston machining & finishing
Inaccessible/ critical area machining
Super finishing of inner lateral surface of a shell
Finishing of fragile components
Holes along a curved axis
Micro & Nano components of special materials
 Conventional machining sufficed the requirement
of the industries over the decades.
But new exotic work materials as well as innovative
geometric design of products and components
were putting lot of pressure on capabilities of
conventional machining processes to manufacture
the components with desired tolerances
economically.
This led to the development and establishment of
NTM processes in the industry as efficient and
economic alternatives to conventional ones.
The following examples are provided where NTM
processes are preferred over the conventional
machining process:
 Intricate shaped blind hole e.g. square
hole of 15 mmx15 mm with a depth of 30
mm
Difficult to machine material e.g. same
example as above in Inconel, Ti-alloys or
carbides.
Low Stress Grinding Electrochemical
Grinding is preferred as compared to
conventional grinding
Deep hole with small hole diameter e.g.
1.5 mm hole with l/d = 20
Machining of composites.
 Technologically advanced industries like
aerospace, nuclear power, automobiles has
ever increasing use of High strength
temperature resistant (HSTR) alloys (having
high strength to weight ratio) and other
difficult to machine materials like titanium,
SST, nimonics, ceramics and semiconductors.
It is no longer possible to use conventional
process to machine these alloys.
 Production and processing parts of
complicated shapes (in HSTR and other hard
to machine alloys) is difficult , time
consuming an uneconomical by conventional
methods of machining
Innovative geometric design of products and
components made of new exotic materials
with desired tolerance , surface finish cannot
be produced economically by conventional
machining.
 Mechanical Processes
Abrasive Jet Machining (AJM)
Ultrasonic Machining (USM)
Water Jet Machining (WJM)
Abrasive Water Jet Machining (AWJM)
Electrochemical Processes
Electrochemical Machining (ECM)
Electro Chemical Grinding (ECG)
Electro Jet Drilling (EJD)
Electro-Thermal Processes
Electro-discharge machining (EDM)
Laser Jet Machining (LJM)
Electron Beam Machining (EBM)
Chemical Processes
Chemical Milling (CHM)
Photochemical Milling (PCM) etc.
 . Mechanical Energy based Unconventional
Machining Processes:
In these processes, unwanted material in the
work piece is removed by mechanical erosion.
The mechanical erosion can be facilitated by
using any medium.
For example, in abrasive jet machining, high
velocity abrasive jet is used for eroding material
from the work piece. In water jet machining, high
velocity water jet is used for cutting the work
piece material.
 The four main mechanical energy based
unconventional machining processes are:
Abrasive Jet Machining
Water Jet Machining or Water Jet Cutting
Abrasive Water Jet Machining
Ultrasonic Machining
 Electric spark discharge is used to cut and machine
the work piece.
In electrical energy based processes, no arc is
produced (as in arc welding). Instead, thousands of
sparks are produced every second. These sparks
increase the temperature of the workpiece, melt
the unwanted portions and vapourise those
portions.
A dielectric fluid is used for cleaning the workpiece
and facilitating a smooth spark discharge.
Processes that come under this category are:
Electrical Discharge Machining
Wire Cut Electrical Discharge Machining
 In these processes, unwanted portions of the
work piece are removed by electrochemical
effect. The workpiece (in contact with an
electrolyte) is machined by ion dissolution.
Processes that come under this category are:
Electrochemical Machining
Electrochemical Grinding
Electrochemical Honing
Here, chemical energy is used to remove material from
the work piece.
We know that metal can be easily converted to
metallic salt, if suitable reagent is used. Chemical
energy based processes exploit this principle.
Material is removed by controlled etching of the work
piece in the presence of a reagent known as enchant.
Chemical machining, chemical milling and
photochemical milling (PCM) are the processes that
comes under this category.

 Unwanted portions of a metal can be easily removed, if it

is melted or vaporized. Thermo-electrical energy
based unconventional machining processes make use of
this principle.
In these processes, electrical energy is converted to a huge
amount of heat by some means. This heat is applied on a
small region of the work piece. That particular region is
either melted or vaporized. By this way, material is
removed.
The following are some of the important thermo-electrical
energy based unconventional machining processes:
Plasma Arc Machining
Electron Beam Machining
LASER Beam Machining
Ion Beam Machining
 The correct selection of the non-traditional
machining methods must be based on the
following aspects. i) Physical parameters of
the process ii) Shape to be machined iii)
Process capability iv) Economics of the
processes
 Physical parameter of the process:
Physical parameters of NTM process like
power, voltage potential, current ,gap
between the tool and workpiece material,
are a few common parameters in NTM
process. Process like USM and EDM
consume approximately the same power for
machining a particular material but ECM
and CM consume a comparatively greater
amount of power.
PAM and ECM require high power for fast
machining.
EBM and LBM require high voltages and
require careful handling of equipment.
EDM and USM require medium power .
EBM can be used in vacuum and PAM uses
oxygen and hydrogen gas.
 Shapes cutting capability
The different shapes can be machined by NTM.
EBM and LBM are used for micro drilling and
cutting.
USM and EDM are useful for cavity sinking
and standard hole drilling.
ECM is useful for fine hole drilling and
contour machining.
PAM can be used for cutting and AJM is
useful for shallow pocketing
Workpiece material posses different properties
they may be hard or soft, conducting or non-
conducting, ductile or brittle based on these
properties NTM is selected
Ex: USM is good for ceramics, glass and EDM
is good for steel and supper alloys.
 Process capability
EDM which achieves higher accuracy has the lowest
specific power requirement.
ECM can machine faster and has a low thermal
surface damage depth.
USM and AJM have very material removal rates
combined with high tool wear and are used non
metal cutting.
LBM and EBM are, due to their high penetration
depth can be used for micro drilling, sheet cutting
and welding.
CHM is used for manufacture of PCM and other
shallow components.
Economical factor and it includes cost related to capital
income ,tooling and fixtures, power requirements and
other expensive included for machining process.
AJM,USM,PAM process requires very low capital
investment compared to EBM,EDM,ECM and LBM
process.
 Advantages of Non-conventional machining:
1) High accuracy and surface finish
2) no direct contact of tool and work piece, so
there is less/no wear
3) tool life is more
4 ) quieter operation
 Disadvantages of non-conventional
machining:
1) high cost
2) complex set-up
3) skilled operator required