An engineering technique called water jet cutting uses the force of extremely fast, highly dense, and high-pressure water to cut objects. A small-bore nozzle (0.1 mm) with a maximum pressure of 392 MPa (or around 4,000 atmospheres) projects the water. A water jet with devastating force is created when water that has been compressed by an ultra high-pressure pump travels at a speed that is roughly three times the speed of sound. Read More…
Hennig Gasket & Seals is a leader in the Chicago-area sealing community. We use a CNC waterjet machine and water jet machining process to cut nonmetallic materials up to 2" thick. Our water jet cutter offers a precision and accuracy level of +/- .005", as well as time and cost efficiency. Call today!
KLH Industries is a tool and manufacturing facility that uses waterjet machining, CNC machining, abrasive waterjet cutting and more. We can cut a variety of materials: ceramic, composites, ferrous, glass, nonferrous, plastic, rubber, stone, wood and more.
JIT Waterjet offers quality precision waterjet cutting services to a wide variety of industries. Try our Dynamic® waterjet - it eliminates edge taper. Using the best in waterjet cutting technology, JIT lowers cost and production time for all our customers.
Westbrook Engineering Co. is a distributor of new & used Techni waterjet cutting systems. All systems are designed for the harsh waterjet environment. We use corrosion resistant materials & minimal moving parts to ensure reliable & accurate machines for many years with minimum maintenance. Since 1964, Westbrook has offered fabricating machinery lines that include water jet cutting machines.
Whatever your need, from decorative items to tooling components with tight tolerances, abrasive jet machining is an effective 2D shape cutting tool. With precision abrasive waterjet machining, manufacturing highly detailed and accurate components is possible in a variety of materials and thicknesses.
More Water Jet Metal Cutting Companies
For example, water jet cutting is used to effectively cut shapes and parts in the aerospace and automotive industries. A granular abrasive is supplied to the water jet to strengthen the cutting force when cutting extremely hard materials.
How Water Jet Cutting is performed
Water jet cutting occurs either as abrasive or pure water jet cutting.
Pure Water Jet Cutting
Soft metals like aluminum can also be cut using the pure water jet cutting method. Pure water jet cutting doesn’t use abrasive material, making it better to cut softer metals like aluminum. In this instance, the water penetrates the material under its pressure and velocity. The streams are exceedingly thin, ranging in diameter from 0.004 to 0.010 inches, and they offer incredible precision with minimal material loss. Cutting forces are quite modest, and fixturing is frequently straightforward. These devices work best when used around-the-clock. It is crucial to understand the stream’s velocity, not pressure, erodes small granules of material. To reach a high velocity, pressurized water travels through a tiny hole in a jewel attached to the end of the nozzle, usually a sapphire, ruby, or diamond.
Abrasive Water Jet Cutting
Water jet cutting uses abrasives such as aluminum oxide or garnet. Abrasive media is introduced to the water stream from a small mixing chamber inside the cutting head. Added abrasives make it possible to cut Ceramics, metals, stones, and thick polymers with water jet cutters. However, refrain from using abrasive water to cut glass and diamonds. glass will shatter under an abrasive water jet cutter.
The abrasive particles do most of the material removal. Abrasive streams have a diameter of between 0.020 inch and 0.050 inch, making them bigger than their pure water jet cousins. They can cut materials and stacks up to 10 inches thick without producing any mechanical strains or heat-affected zones. Cutting forces for abrasive streams are still less than one pound despite their increasing strength. Almost all abrasive jet tasks employ a single jet setup, and switching from a single to several heads or even from abrasive to pure water jet is simple.
Advantages of Water Jet Cutting
- No other cutting technique can compete with the superior quality parts produced by water jet cutting. The edges don't require debarring because they are smooth. Cutting speed, pressure, abrasive flow rate, and nozzle size are only a few of the variables that affect the final product's quality. For the best results, the process settings might need to be changed.
- High cutting accuracy is a benefit of water jet cutting. Even when constrained by strict standards, water jet cut parts are of exceptionally good quality. This is beneficial when fabricating metal products because it ensures we get the perfect final product.
- Due to the cold cutting technology used in waterjet cutting, there is no heat-impacted zone (HAZ). As a result, cold cutting makes clean cuts possible and greatly improves operator safety by lowering the possibility of burns.
- No material distortion: The cold cutting technique avoids heat exposure, which is crucial for materials like metal. This results in a fine cut without material distortion. In addition, this produces a clean, burr-free cut.
- There is no additional finishing step: An additional finishing process is avoided because of the initial high-cutting quality that guarantees a precise output. This greatly shortens the cutting process and saves time, improving efficiency.
Choosing the Proper Waterjet Metal Cutting Company
To make sure you have the most positive outcome when selecting a waterjet metal cutting company, it is important to compare at least 5 waterjet metal cutting companies using our waterjet metal cutting directory. Each waterjet metal cutter has a business profile page that highlights their area of experience and capabilities and a contact form to directly communicate with the company for more information or request a quote. Review each waterjet metal cutting business website using our patented website previewer to get an idea of what each company specializes in, and then use our simple RFQ form to contact multiple waterjet metal cutter companies with the same quote.