What Is Waterjet Cutting, and How Does it Work?

22 Sep 2023
Image from Wikimedia Commons
Waterjet cutting tool refers to a machine shop tool that’s used to cut metal parts using a high stream of water. It involves abrasive and high-pressure water which is targeted at a piece of material resulting in abrasive cutting. Waterjet cutting is excellent at cutting a wide range of materials from metal, ceramic tiles, wood, and almost all type of materials. Abrasive water cutting is used in Many industrial applications across the world because the process results in a smooth cutting surface that’s devoid of any slag or heat affected zones. If you are looking for the perfect waterjet cutting solution, you can search online for competent Waterjet Cutting solution providers such as Spark and Co.
How does Waterjet Cutting work?
An abrasive Waterjet Cutting is a non-thermal cold cutting process operated by a water cutting machine. The process involves an ultrahigh-pressure pump generating a stream of water at pressures of around 4,000-6,000 bars. The pressure is then converted into speed with high-pressure water flowing through an orifice into the cutting head. The stream that ensues is of up to 1,000m/s.
Garnet particles are then fed to a focusing tube through an abrasive inlet. After that, its introduced into the cutting stream. That’s how the cutting force is achieved. The cutting force can cut materials of up to 100mm thickness.
What are the advantages of Waterjet cutting?
Waterjet cutting has many advantages than the other types of cutting like Plasma, flame, and laser cutting. Here are some of the benefits that have made many entrepreneurs switch to Waterjet Cutting.
1. No heat affected zone
One excellent advantage that gives Waterjet Cutting an edge over other types of cutting is that it does not produce heat-affected zones that hardens the cut edges. What this means is that it allows the cutting of materials that would otherwise be burned, cracked, or melted by other cutting materials. It also means that there is no material distortion owing to its cold cutting method.
2. No material limitations
Another excellent advantage of Waterjet Cutting is that its versatile and can work on a wide range of materials such as metal, composites, plastics, stone or rock, glass, ceramics, as well as rubber. Adding granular abrasive, a waterjet cutter can give you quality cuts on materials of up to 200mm thickness which is great for any cutting business.
3. Incredible precision
Waterjet cutting is the best option to cut precision parts with the best tolerance. They can attain an accuracy of down to 0.005. Furthermore, it cuts the material without interfering with its inherent structure. Also, owing to its relatively narrow kerf, it can reduce the amount of scrap material produced.
4. No hazardous waste
Unlike other cutting technologies, Waterjet Cutting does not produce hazardous wastes such as fumes and gasses. Hence it’s the perfect cutting technology that provides an environmentally friendly process.
Final words
Other advantages of Waterjet cutting include the ability to perforate most materials without starting holes, the ability to cut in all directions, and the requirement of minimum fixtures. Hence Waterjet cutting technology provides the most benefits for the cutting industry.
Cheers,
Big Daddy
If you are a PR agency or brand and would like me to review a travel destination, vehicle, restaurant, product or service, please send me an email at craig@bigdaddykreativ.ca
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