Abrasive Waterjet Cutting
Abrasive waterjet cutting differs from pure waterjet cutting in just a few ways. In pure waterjet cutting, the supersonic stream erodes the material.
In the abrasive waterjet, the waterjet stream accelerates abrasive particles and those particles, not the water, erode the material.
The abrasive waterjet is hundreds, if not thousands of times more powerful than a pure waterjet. Both the waterjet and the abrasive waterjet have their place. Where the pure waterjet cuts soft materials, the abrasive waterjet cuts hard materials, such as metals, stone, composites and ceramics.
Abrasive waterjets using standard parameters can cut materials with hardness up to and slightly beyond aluminum oxide ceramic (often called alumina, AD 99.9).
Abrasive Waterjet Attributes
- Extremely versatile process
- No Heat Affected Zones
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No mechanical stresses
- Easy to program
- Thin stream (0.020to 0.050 inch in diameter)
- Extremely detailed geometry
- Thin material cutting
- 10 inch thick cutting
- Stack cutting
- Little material loss due to cutting
- Simple to fixture
- Low cutting forces (under 1 lb. while cutting)
- One jet setup for nearly all abrasive jet jobs
- Easily switched from single to multi-head use
- Quickly switch from pure waterjet to abrasive waterjet
- Reduced secondary operations
- Little or no burr
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