Water jet cutter
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A diagram of a water jet cutter |
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A water jet cutter creating a specialist tool |
A
water jet cutter is a tool capable of slicing into
metal or other materials using a jet of
water at high velocity and pressure, or a mixture of water and an
abrasive substance. The process is essentially the same as
water erosion found in nature but accelerated and concentrated by orders of magnitude. It is often used during fabrication or manufacture of parts for machinery and other devices. It has found applications in a diverse number of industries from
mining to
aerospace where it is used for operations such as cutting, shaping,
carving, and reaming.
The cutter is commonly connected to a high-
pressure water pump (a local
water main does not supply sufficient pressure) where the water is then ejected out of the nozzle, cutting through the material by bombarding it with the stream of high-speed water. Additives in the form of suspended grit or other abrasives, such as
garnet and
aluminum oxide, can assist in this process. Because the nature of the cutting stream can be easily modified, water jets can be used to cut materials as diverse as
fish sticks and
titanium. There are few materials that can't be effectively cut with a water jet cutter; one of these is
tempered glass which shatters when cut, regardless of the cutting technology used.
The most important benefit of the water jet cutter is its ability to cut material without interfering with the material's inherent structure as there is no "heat affected zone" or HAZ. This allows metals to be cut without harming or changing their intrinsic properties.
In the
1950s, forestry engineer Dr. Norman Franz experimented with an early form of water jet cutter to cut
lumber. However, the technology didn't advance notably until the
1970s. Today the water jet is unparallelled in many aspects of cutting and has changed the way many products are manufactured. Many types of water jets exist today, including plain water jets, abrasive water jets, percussive water jets,
cavitation jets and hybrid jets.
*http://www.alliantmetals.com/
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Waterjet Web Reference
