Water Jet cutting is a method of cutting metal with no heat. As the name suggests highly pressurized water is used to slice metal into the desired shape. Water jet cutting provides extreme accuracy and burr-free parts. The automotive, racing and architectural industries employ water jet cutting techniques to create attractive and precise metal parts.
Water Jet Cutting Solution Providers
- CMS North America provides machining equipment and solutions, including water jet cutting solutions throughout the contract manufacturing industry. The CMS North America site also provides water jet cutting technological overviews including material types that are suitable for water jet cutting and water jet quality index.
- Delmar Company Delmar Company provides quality plastic fabrication and machining production for many advanced industries. Their plastic production services are completed in-house at their state-of-the-art facility located in Lakeville, Minnesota. A few of their services include waterjet cutting, plastic welding, and prototype machining.
- Industrial Metal Supply not only sells metal materials, they also offer full-service water jet cutting to give customers products that match their specifications.
- Fedtech Waterjet Cutting Minnesota.
Water Jet Cutting Advantages
Waterjet cutting offers many advantages over more traditional cutting techniques. The primary advantage of waterjet cutting is that the process does not product high levels of heat that can damage the structural properties of the material being cut. In traditional cutting of metals, there is a "heat affected zone" radiating outward from the cutting point in which the grain and structure of the metal is compromised, often reducing its strength or wear resistance. Another advantage of water jet cutting is the extremely fine and precise cuts that can be made. Non-abrasive waterjet cutting can produce a cut that is only 0.003" in width -- about the width of a human hair. When coupled with computer cutting software to operate the waterjet cutter extremely detailed and precise cuts can be made with an absolute minimum of waste.
Materials That Can Be Cut with Water Jet Cutting
Water jet cutting can be used in a host of industrial applications for cutting just about any kind of material. Water jet cutting was originally developed as a way to cut lumber in the 1950s. In the '70s the technology advanced enormously when abrasives were added to the pressurized water stream, allowing waterject cutting of much harder materials. Today water jet cutting is commonly used to cut all kinds of metal and even stone, including granite. Since water jet cutting uses only water suffused with abrasives (suspended grit) it is considered an incredibly green technology that doesn't produce environmentally hazardous waste products. Additionally, the precise cutting that is available with water jet cutting technology allows manufacturers to produce less waste product.
