Waterjet Technology
Waterjet Cutting Explained
The technology of waterjet cutting process in today’s industrial production, is based on the principle of the kinetic energy that a drop of water has when it emerges from the water nozzle at a certain speed. The water nozzle has the crucial task of concentrating the water under high pressure. The water nozzle is just large enough so that the pressure does not drop. Typically, the nozzle diameter for waterjet cutting is 0.1 – 0.5 mm.
The water droplets emerge at a certain speed depending on the pressure. At 4000 bar, for example, the jet speed is 640 m/sec. At this speed, the water droplets separate a wide variety of soft materials such as plastics, foams, cork, felt and similar materials. If metals, ceramics, glass or other hard materials are to be cut with the waterjet cutting process, sand (abrasive) must be added in a mixing chamber with negative pressure after the water nozzle.
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Waterjet Cutting Advantage
There are several advantages to cutting with water over other alternatives like laser or plasma cutting. A wide variety of materials can be cut flexibly with waterjet. These range from glass to plastics, wood, ceramics and metals to special metals such as sintered metal, bimetal, spring steel, titanium, Inconel or platinum, and many more.
The processing of the material takes place without heat input and thus without any structural changes. This means that there are no heat-affected zones and thus no additional heat-related distortion. Waterjet cutting is therefore an extremely popular alternative to laser cutting, as the cold cutting process does not require any further finishing or post-treatment of the workpiece due to material changes caused by the cutting process. With waterjet cutting, as an alternative to plasma cutting, waste can also be greatly reduced through a wide range of flexible options.
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