• Waterjet Cutting - Why and When

Discover the Advantages of Waterjet Cutting for Your Project

Why Waterjet Cutting?

Learn why waterjet cutting is a versatile, precise, and environmentally friendly unconventional cutting technology that offers numerous benefits across various applications.

  • Versatility: Suitable for various materials and industries.
  • Precision and accuracy: High precision with clean, burr-free edges.
  • No heat-affected zone (HAZ): Ideal for heat-sensitive materials.
  • Environmentally friendly: No harmful emissions and minimal waste.
  • No mechanical stress: Maintains material integrity.
  • Rough, Medium and smooth finishes can be opted as needed as per cost.
  • Quick setup: Reduced lead times for projects.
  • Material-saving: Optimizes material usage and lowers costs.
  • Minimal finishing needed: Smooth edges eliminate the need for extra finishing processes.

Waterjet cutting is good option, when other profile cutting methods such as flame cutting,plasma cutting and laser cutting machines cannot accomplish cutting or when conventional machines take lots of machining time or when parts are needed quickly.

When to use Waterjet Cutting?

At ALIND,we simply say to use waterjet cutting only when other alternative profile cutting proceses such as Oxy-flame cutting, Plasma cutting, Laser cutting,Wire EDM cutting processes create undesired results or when these other cutting or conventional manufacturing methods fail or not capable for profile cutting of your parts then waterjet profile cutting is the ultimate and is the only solution.

Productivity of adopting to Waterjet cutting in your process

There is significant amount of material savings in waterjet cutting over conventional machining process. The abrasive stream produces minimal kerf width of 1 to 2mm, permitting tight nesting of parts. Your “scrap” metal is easier to re-use or recycle as there is no heat affected zone. Also, we use advanced nesting software to minimize material wastage. Hence you can have more parts per sheet.

Advantages of Choosing Waterjet Cutting for Your Project

Waterjet cutting is a versatile, precise, and environmentally friendly cutting technology that offers numerous benefits for a wide range of applications. If you’re considering various cutting methods for your project, here are some compelling reasons to choose waterjet cutting.

Material Versatility

Waterjet cutting can handle various materials, from metals and stone to glass, ceramics, plastics, composites, and even wood. This flexibility makes it suitable for projects across multiple industries, including aerospace, automotive, construction, and manufacturing.

Exceptional Precision and Accuracy

With accuracy up to ±0.1mm, waterjet cutting delivers clean, burr-free edges and intricate designs. Its high precision reduces the need for secondary finishing processes and ensures parts meet tight tolerances.

Cold Cutting Process

As a cold cutting method, waterjet cutting minimizes heat generation, reducing heat-affected zones (HAZ) and thermal distortion. This feature makes it ideal for heat-sensitive materials and preserves material integrity.

Environmentally Friendly

Waterjet cutting produces no harmful fumes or gases and generates minimal waste. Water and abrasive can be recycled, making it an eco-friendly option for cutting processes.

No Mechanical Stress

The non-contact nature of waterjet cutting eliminates mechanical stress and deformation, ensuring the material’s structural integrity remains intact.

Complex Shapes and Geometries

Waterjet cutting is capable of producing intricate shapes, curves, making it ideal for projects with complex design requirements.

Quick Setup and Material Optimization

Waterjet cutting requires minimal setup time and utilizes advanced nesting software to optimize material usage, reducing waste and costs.

Waterjet Cutting Methodology

Most abrasive waterjet cutting theories explain abrasive waterjet cutting as a form of accelerated micro erosion. High pressure water at 3800 bar is passed thru a tiny orifice at a speed of approx.900 m/s – nearly three

times the speed of sound. The result is a coherent very thin extremely high velocity waterjet with a diameter of approx. 0.08 to 0.50 mm. Natural garnet sand particles are made to be sucked into the stream of the coherent waterjet and directed to hit the work piece on the cutting line with the very high velocity. There by hardest of metals and non metals can be cut or machined by micro erosion. Automating the process with programmable systems in conjunction with the CNC control provides precision and high flexibility with a wide variety of part profiles.

Thus, Abrasive jet cutting systems are considered as an efficient tool to cut work pieces which are previously considered “unmachineable” by conventional cutting methods.

Disadvantages of waterjet cutting

The waterjet cutting is performed by the pressure and velocity of jet cutting streem,the pressure and velocity decreases for every mm of cutting thickness. As a result, material removal is lesser and lesser at every mm of the thickness.This results inCutting taper at cut edges.

Tapering at cut edges is the only disadvantage. The cut edge will have 0.1 to 0.5mm of taper. Taper will be on the plus side of dimensional tolerance only. Taper will be less (0.1mm to o.3mm) in smooth cutting finish and more(0.3 to 0.5mm)in rough cutting finish.

This amount of taper is also not a problem in majority of applications. If not desired, the taper can be eliminated by further machining at conventional machines like milling. When further milling is required,a very minimal machining allowance only is needed. If further machining is required, customers may request for rough cutting finish which is the least cost of finishing.

Conclusion:

Waterjet cutting is an ideal solution for projects that require precision, versatility of material it can cut, and eco-friendly cutting methods. By choosing waterjet cutting for your project, you can enjoy a wide range of benefits that contribute to the overall success of your project. Contact us today to learn more about our waterjet cutting services and how we can help bring your project to life.

How to get a quote from ALIND?

Simply you can get ALIND’s cutting cost quotation by sending us mail with the details as mentioned bellow.

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