Water jets use the beam of water exiting
the orifice (or jewel) to cut soft materials like paper and
foam, but are not effective for cutting harder materials. |
The high velocity water exiting the jewel
creates a vacuum which sucks abrasive from the abrasive line,
which mixes with the water in the mixing tube to form a high
velocity beam of abrasives. |
Very low side forces during the machining
This means we can machine a part with walls as
thin as .0025" without them blowing out. Also, low side forces
allow for close nesting of parts, and maximum material usage.
Almost no heat generated during cutting operations
We can machine without hardening the material,
generating poisonous fumes, recasting, or warping. We can machine
parts that have already been heat treated with only a tiny decrease
in speed. On piercing 2" thick steel, temperatures may get
as high as 120 degrees (f), but otherwise machining is done at room
temperature.
No start hole required
Start holes are only required for impossible
to pierce materials.
Machining material thicknesses
This is one huge advantage our Abrasive jets
have over lasers. It is fairly common for us to machine materials
up to 100mm thick. Cutting speed may be reduced on particularly
thick or hard materials.
Here are some other benefitsof our waterjet cutting process:
- Machine virtually any 2D shape
- Cut virtually any material:
- Brittle materials like ceramic, quartz, stone
- Laminates
- Flammable materials
- Cuts thin or thick materials alike
- Make all sorts of shapes with only one tool
- Cuts wide range of thickness to tight tolerances
- No Heat Generated / No heat affected zones - this is cold cutting!
- No mechanical stresses
- Cut virtually any shape
- Fast setup allows small quantity runs
- Leaves a satin smooth finish, thus reducing secondary operations
- Clean cutting process without gasses or oils
- Makes its own start holes
- Narrow kerf removes only a small amount of material
- No "scaley" edges, which makes it easier to make a
high quality weld
- Machine composite materials, or materials where dissimilar materials
are glued together
- Machine stacks of thin parts all at once
- Short of hand tools, abrasive jets provide the most environmentally
friendly machining around
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