What is Waterjet Cutting and How Does It Work?
What is Waterjet Cutting?
Waterjet cutting is an erosive manufacturing technique. It erodes material from a workpiece using a dense, pressurized, incredibly fast, and forceful jet of water.
How Does Waterjet Cutting Work?
Density, pressure, and speed combine to squeeze water to unearthly pressures of 4,000 atmospheres. The resultant supersonic velocities are shot through a small-bore nozzle at several times the speed of sound. An abrasive agent, like sand or ground-up garnet, is sometimes added to the water jet to facilitate cutting.
One valuable advantage is that waterjet cutting does not require the engineer to change tools. Whenever a different material is in need of cutting, the engineer can alter the feed rate to attain a particular speed that best coincides with the thickness and composition of the workpiece.
And since the abrasive agent is injected into the water jet at the nozzle, machinists can switch between a jet of pure water or one of water imbued with the abrasive particles.
What Can a Water Jet Cut? Can a Water Jet Cut Glass?
Water jets can cut myriad metals, including stainless steel, tough titanium, and the commonly used and multitalented aluminum. Other commonly water-jetted materials include glass, foam, wood, ceramics, concrete, plastics, and granite, among others. Generally, softer materials like wood and plastics can be easily cut with a jet of pure water. Harder, or laminated materials, such as metals, will have to be cut using a waterjet mixed with an abrasive material.
What Can a Waterjet Machine Not Cut?
With multi-axis waterjet machines powered by intensifier pumps generating 90,000 psi, and the resultant laser-like water jet attaining 2,500 mph, there are very few limits to this technology. And the CNC capabilities unfailingly create the desired shapes or 3D geometries in whatever volume may be necessary.
Some versions of this technology can even cleave through diamonds, the paragon of durable materials. So even though it can cut through just about anything, certain materials don't lend well to cutting via water jet. These materials include tempered glass because tempered glass is made to shatter when force is applied. Additionally, brittle metals like cast iron may not take well to a waterjet, along with some types of ceramics.
What Makes Waterjet Technology So Sought-after?
Waterjet cutting benefits many fields. In the automotive industry, it shapes bumpers, dashboards, and other structural components. Likewise, in the aerospace sector, where water jets shape fuselages and other elements, like wings. In the electronics industry, water jets cut circuit boards and enclosures. Waterjet products are also frequently found in the home: roofing elements, panels, and tiles.
Believe it or not, waterjet cutting is a mainstay in the food industry--not in creating food industry tools or components, but in cutting actual food items. Meats, veggies, our favorite sweets, or the frozen fare that fill our freezers are cut to size in a sanitary way via pressurized water.
Plus, waterjet cutting offers a clean, environmentally friendly machining method that only uses water and an abrasive, like sand, producing no waste.
Similar to electrical discharge machining (EDM), waterjet cutting does not require any tool to come into physical contact with the workpiece. So the machined part isn't at risk of thermal damage, degradation, color changes, or other aesthetic alterations. In food industry applications, this lack of contact makes waterjet cutting the perfectly sanitary option.
Jet To the Top of Your Domain By Partnering with Beltim & Associates!
With multipurpose versatility across virtually every industry, Beltim & Associates waterjet techniques and technology can give you the advantage you need. Just contact us today or get a free quote to find out how our experienced engineers can best serve you!