A waterjet cutter is a processing tool that uses high-pressure water, sometimes mixed with abrasive, to cut or drill nearly any material. Without the addition of an abrasive material, the waterjet is capable of cutting many soft and semi-rigid materials like paper, plastic, and foam. With the addition of an abrasive the waterjet becomes an aggressive tool that can cut through just about anything.
High-pressure water (50,000-60,000 p.s.i.) passes through a jeweled orifice that ranges from .003" to .013" inches (.076 - .330mm) in diameter. The flow enters a mixing tube or nozzle that ranges in size from .015"(.381mm) through .050" (1.27mm) inches in diameter. The stream of water causes a vacuum, which draws finely crushed garnet (the abrasive). As the water enters the mixing tube it mixes with the garnet, exiting from the tube at incredible forces making contact with the material to be cut.
Some big advantages of using the waterjet are that it causes very little stress to the material being cut, is a very flexible, fast, and accurate method of cutting complex parts, and does not produce heat-affected zones as do alternative cutting methods such as Plasma, EDM, Lasers, etc… No tooling or set-ups are typically incurred as well, making them perfect for production or prototype runs.
Waterjets can be used to cut everything from titanium up to 10 inches (254mm) thick to Nabisco Fig Newtons® (our favorite). Given the right material and type of system, tolerances can be held to ±.0005"(.0127mm). Waterjet cutting systems are typically found cutting materials such as:
- Plastics
- Insulation
- Glass
- Rubber
- Automotive Carpeting and headliners
- Most types of steel
- Foam
- Non-wovens
- Corrugated Cardboard
- Paper
When coupled with a suitable motion control system, waterjet cutting provides extremely accurate cuts with a high degree of repeatability over a wide range of materials and shapes.
If you believe that you have a product or process that could be best served with a waterjet cutting system, please call us for more specific technical information or a timely quotation.
Please contact Cut Smart if you would like more information on this subject.
© 2004 Cut Smart Engineering & Manufacturing, Inc. All rights reserved.
