On the Cutting Edge -- Waterjet Cutting Tools

On the Cutting Edge -- Waterjet Cutting Tools
From fuselages and wings, to the fenders of a Chevrolet Corvette, to armor panels on military vehicles, composite materials are showing up with greater frequency in a wide range of applications.

But cutting and trimming the composite will not be easy. Material is susceptible to oxidation and degradation from overheating. Carbon fiber is not good because they break off instead of cutting smoothly.

waterjet cutting machine

It is mainly the reason that waterjet cutting is emerging as one of the fastest equipment, today this growth. Grown accurate as technology and offer a non-contact cutting, waterjet cutting has spread from the aviation and aerospace and defense to electronics stores and stone work and tile industry.



"Waterjet machine to benefit the most, without regard to what it's cut is that it does not contact methods contrast with the absence of heat," Dick LeBlanc, executive vice president of technology manufacturing waterjet International. Flow International said. "You can go to some metal machine with very thick, and abrasive waterjet does not change the metal material It was a cutting cold.



Abrasive waterjet cutting refers to a method of using water pressurized up to 94,000 pounds per square inch with a garnet abrasive entrained in the jet stream. The water is forced through a precision orifice up to 0.0015 inches in diameter. The water and abrasive garnet -- think of the material used on sandpaper -- cut materials with surprising speed, hitting accuracies of up to 0.001 inches.

"Five or 10 years ago, the accuracy is not possible," Adam Wysuph, engineers use a Mitsubishi said. "Many of the people who use water jet is rough work, and then turning part in the future. But today, you can complete part of it has smooth edges and a better quality table laser or plasma.

When waterjet cutting born in the year 1985 embracers commercial about it from the beginning of the defense industry and commercial aircraft.

"Defense is the first area of heavy use that just do not mix. But they started looking for alternative methods for cutting exotic metals such as titanium, nickels, and various alloys, "says Wysuph.