Waterjet Technology

UHP Waterjet Cutting

UHP technology can pressurize common water to 100 to 400 Mpa, and then eject through orifice,with the 0.3 mm diameter, forming 800 to 1000m/s high speed jet, which is also called waterjet. Such waterjet has very high energy, which can be used to cut the soft material. If we add adequate abrasive into the waterejt, it nearly can cut all the soft materials. Adjust the pressure and flow of waterjet, and it can clean all kinds of materials with UHP water, like removing glue, paint, rust, etc. We also can use UHP technoloby to sterilize, refresh the food, etc, which will benefit human-beings.

Waterjet cutting is the cold cutting technology, which is based on UHP waterjet technology. Comparing with heat cutting (fiber, plasma, laser, etc.), “waterjet” nearly can cut all the materials from soft to hard materials, especially with thickness over 20 mm. It is a ideal well-known means in machining carbide fiber, titanium alloy, aluminum alloy, alveolar structure and composite material. Waterjet technology has been applied in machining materials, like steel, copper aluminum, glass, ceramics, carbide alloy, plastics, artificial fiber, cloth, paper, and composite, and it can be manufactured as structural parts or welded assembly. So waterjet system has become the newly manufactured assembly, used in new equipment-manufactured industries, like aerospace, military, railway, ships, automobiles, engineering mechanism, light industry, chemical industry, energy, architecture engineering field.

Comparison between Water Cutting and Laser Cutting

Laser cutting equipment requires large investment, and it is usually used to cut steel sheet. The cutting speed is fast, and precision is high, but there will be the crater in the kerf, which will result in the heat effect. Besides, laser cutting won’t be ideal in cutting nonferrous metal, e.g. aluminum, cooper, alloy, etc. Especially kerf is not ideal when the metal’s thickness is over 10 mm. The current research on high-power laser generator is aimed at solving the cutting problem of heavy steel plates, but the equipment investment and operation, service cost is high. The advantages of waterjet cutting are low investment, low operation cost, wide application scope, high efficiency and convenient maintenance.

Comparison between Waterjet Cutting and Plasma Cutting
Plasma cutting has obvious heating effect and low precision, and the kerf is hard for secondary operation. Waterjet system is operated in cold state without any thermal distortion, and the kerf is fine. There is no need to cut for machining for twice, and it is very easy for secondary operation.

Comparison of Water Cutting and Linear Cutting

Linear cutting has higher precision in machining metal but the cutting speed is slow. Sometimes, perforation and threading, and other methods are required before cutting and the cutting dimension is largely restricted. However, waterjet cutting can punch and cut any materials, with the high cutting speed and flexible cutting dimensions.