Waterjet cutting is one of those material processing techniques that is still gaining popularity. From the position of an unknown, almost fantastic technology, waterjet is slowly becoming the basic element of the production workshop in many production plants.
First of all, it uses a relatively cheap and safe raw material, which is water. The amount of generated waste is small if the water after treatment is properly cleaned, while virtually no permanent hazardous waste is generated at any stage of the work. It is not without significance that in practice, at a relatively low cost, you can prepare any production plant to process almost any material. Waterjet cutting without the use of additional abrasive is possible with regard to materials such as selected plastics, including soft PVC, paper, cardboard, fabrics, films, and also food, because in this area Waterjet has many applications. By using Spark & CO waterjet cutting machine, many more materials can be cut to replace some: granite, marble, MDF.
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Modern machines working in the Waterjet technology can be modified in a few minutes to cut other materials – usually it is enough to change the working head. This obviously translates into the flexibility of the production line, reduction of costs and also increases in accuracy, as the waterjet cutting machines are able to do any work we can program for them. In fact, the only cost that must be incurred during the operation of such a machine is the purchase of new heads. The average working time of one head is about 140 hours, although some defects or design defects of the head itself may shorten this time.
Benefits of Waterjet Cutting
- A waterjet cutting machine can be characterized with just one word: versatility. This is the greatest advantage you can expect from a device of this type. Of course, it is equally important for an entrepreneur that the purchase of a Waterjet machine pays for itself quickly. Although the cutting head is not the cheapest, compared to other types of machine tools, the Waterjet technology allows for a significant reduction in costs, especially since failures requiring repair of more expensive elements are rare in this case. What makes Waterjet so universal?
- Programming cutting machines has been quite a problem so far. In the case of water cutting, it is enough to translate the vector graphics into a language understandable for the machine, which is no challenge for a skilled technician. Thanks to such a simple programming system, it is also possible to quickly quote the service, which is another advantage.
- Water cutting uses a lot of energy, but it works in a point. This avoids most of the problems with fastening materials. Most of them, e.g. thicker aluminum blocks or granite fragments, do not need to be additionally attached, but are only placed on a grate. Ordinary clamps can be used to attach smaller pieces of material; often machine manufacturers make sure that they are included in the set.
- Machining with traditional methods has a limited accuracy, among others due to the occurrence of high stresses. The water cutting technology allows you to cut even a half-millimeter wall with virtually no risk of breaking it. This is, in a way, due to another important feature of this technology. However, it does not heat up the material as much as other, more conventional methods. Of course, using abrasive (slightly less with the water jet alone) will increase the surface temperature, but it will not be a significant change. For example, when cutting a five-centimeter block of steel, the temperature can be as low as around 50 degrees. This again allows you to work with many materials that would not withstand the loads and temperatures occurring, for example, during classic machining on a lathe.
- Conventional machining methods typically require a starter hole to be drilled. In the case of water cutting, such a need does not arise. The machine automatically finds the starting point, starts the machining process and guides it automatically to the last point in the pilot program. By the way, it is worth mentioning that with plasma cutting, you can cut material with a thickness of about 100mm. using the water cutting technology, this thickness increases three times – at least such aluminum blocks are processed as standard, but it is time-consuming.
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The Waterjet technology is finally one of the greens we have at our disposal. Only water (and possibly grenade) is used, while after the treatment is finished, only water contaminated with one solid waste is released. Therefore, it is relatively easy to clean and, in accordance with the rules, used or discharged as treated sewage. By the way – when treating materials such as gold or silver, and this is also done, one must not forget that the resulting “waste” can quite seriously contribute to strengthening the financial situation. Customers of companies using waterjet cutting will appreciate the fact that Waterjet causes very little loss of material, among others thanks to the narrow cutting gap. A small loss of material is also a profit, and a company that helps its customers save is usually quite popular. So you can see that Waterjet has many advantages. This list is not exhaustive and only a few of them indicate.