We can use our experience to specify several examples of applications, in which water jet is not only technologically suitable, but also economically efficient:
- Clean cutting aluminum, duralumin, copper, brass, bronze, etc., with rough machining for most thicknesses
- Clean cutting steel (structural and mainly stainless steel) at a thickness above the capabilities of laser
- Cutting rough semi-finished products for subsequent machining from steel (again, mainly stainless steel) of any range of thickness with minimum allowance
Chain rounds, steel thickness 60mm
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Process of smaller parts |
Cut in aluminum 150mm, quality Q3 |
- Cutting materials for hot treatment - refining or after hot treatment, in which they are not heat-affected by the cut
- Cutting hard-to-machine steels - tool steel, hardened steel, abrasion-resistant (hardox, abrazit, altrix...), etc.
- Cutting hard-to-work materials like fiberglass, rubber textile, soft and hard rubber, plastics, sealants, etc.
- Cutting non-homogenous layered materials - sandwich - e.g. rubber on metal, sigraflex, etc.
- Cutting signs, logos, etc., for advertising and presentation purposes from the widest variety of material
Signs, state and regional notices from 35 mm thick stainless steel | - Cutting different mosaics mostly for interior purposes (marble and other stone, tiles, paneling, carpet, combinations of various materials…)
- Cutting very thin but otherwise hard-to-work foil (especially for smaller batches)
- Cutting semi-finished or ready pieces for interior fixtures out of glass, stainless, brass, etc.
- Cutting glass (excluding tempered) into the most demanding shapes, including laminated glass, mirrors, etc.
Even detailed pieces can be cut from glass 12 mm thick |
Different pieces of wheels | - Very narrow bands can be cut (x mm) from any of the described material, including brittle (glass, stone) for final formatting, etc.
- Cutting foam materials for sound insulation or for packing fill for special tools, weapons, musical instruments, fragile goods, etc.
- Piecework operation (openings, notches, etc.) for semi-finished products.
- Piece and small batch orders that can be made with water jet and minimum preparation costs without having to produced tools, devices, etc.
In contrast these applications of water jet are considered technically and economically impractical:
- Cutting steels with a thickness that can be managed by a laser and answers the prescribed quality, mostly for large batches (water is needlessly expensive)
- Cutting steel of a thickness where burning with plasma or flame is practical and technically suitable (water is needlessly expensive)
- Cutting pieces where a precision of 0,X mm is impractical and further working is not considered (a suitable method is electro-erosion or other types of machining)
- Working with precisely machined semi-finished products and locating the cuts (where optical or other precise means for measuring the semi-finished product are not possible) with a high degree of precision (better than 0.2-0.5mm)
- Cutting materials that soak on contact with water or otherwise are physically or optically damaged
- Cutting tempered glass (which disintegrates during the cut)
- Working semi-finished products with complex shapes where the jet cannot get close to the surface of the cut material
- Cost savings by cutting a number of harder panels or sheets on top of one another (sometimes this can be successful, but mostly they don't achieve the relevant financial savings, and the quality of the cut on lower panels decreases sharply)
- Cutting pieces with the need for an absolute square cut (this is very difficult if not impossible, especially for most thicknesses)
We believe this presentation of information will be useful and we will be happy to consult with you about the advantage of specific applications. ^ Up
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