why do you need water jet cut metal?
Comparison of waterjet, laser cutter, flame cutter, and plasma cutter in metal cutting applications
- Principle: Use high-pressure water flow (abrasive can be added) to impact the metal surface, and use kinetic energy to achieve cutting, which belongs to cold cutting.
- Applicable Materials: Applicable to various metals (such as steel, aluminum, titanium alloy, etc.), especially suitable for thick metals and heat-sensitive materials.
- Cutting Quality: Smooth cutting edge, no heat-affected zone, suitable for high-precision and complex shape cutting.
- Cutting Efficiency: Slow cutting speed, but suitable for thick metal cutting.
- Cost: High operating cost, but Low initial equipment investment.
- Environmental Protection: No pollution, no heat impact, best environmental protection.
- Applicable Scenarios: Aerospace, automobile manufacturing, medical equipment and other fields with high precision requirements.
- Principle: Use a high-power density laser beam to heat the metal until it melts or vaporizes, and then blow away the molten material through high-pressure gas.
- Applicable Materials: Applicable to thin plates and medium-thick plates (such as carbon steel, stainless steel, aluminum alloy, etc.), but limited ability to cut thick metals.
- Cutting Quality: High cutting accuracy, good surface roughness of incision, suitable for fine processing.
- Cutting Efficiency: Fast cutting speed, suitable for thin and medium-thick plates.
- Cost: Low equipment cost, medium operating cost.
- Environmental Protection: Clean and safe, but will produce a small amount of smoke.
- Applicable Scenarios: metal processing, automobile manufacturing, advertising industry, etc.
- Principle: Heat the metal through a high-temperature flame generated by a mixture of oxygen and fuel, and then use oxidation reaction to achieve cutting.
- Applicable Materials: Mainly used for thick metals (such as carbon steel, cast iron, etc.), and has poor cutting effect on thin plates.
- Cutting Quality: Low cutting accuracy, rough incision, large heat-affected zone.
- Cutting Efficiency: Slow cutting speed, but suitable for extremely thick metals.
- Cost: Low equipment and operating costs, suitable for low-cost needs.
- Environmental Protection: Will produce smoke and oxides, poor environmental protection.
- Applicable Scenarios: thick metal processing fields such as construction and ship repair.
- Principle: Use the heat of a high-temperature plasma arc to melt the metal, and remove the molten metal through high-speed gas.
- Applicable Materials: Suitable for medium and thick plate metals (such as carbon steel, stainless steel, aluminum, etc.), with high cutting efficiency.
- Cutting Quality: Medium cutting accuracy, smooth incision but large heat-affected zone.
- Cutting Efficiency: Fast cutting speed, suitable for medium and thick plates.
- Cost: Medium equipment cost, low operating cost.
- Environmental Protection: Will produce smoke and heat impact, medium environmental protection.
- Applicable Scenarios: medium and thick plate cutting needs such as machinery manufacturing and steel structure processing.
What are Unique advantages of water jet cutting?
The Best Edge
No mechanical stress, heat distortion or heat-affected zone (HAZ), secondary processing can usually be eliminated. Get a satin smooth edge directly off the waterjet table.
Better Kerfs
Narrow kerf of water jet, about 0.1mm, parts can be tightly nested or common-line cut so raw material usage is maximized. This means less scrap on your floor and more money in your pockets.
Layered samples made of multiple materials are not a problem
There is no need to worry about whether the material will be burned. The multi-material application advantage of waterjet cutting can be fully demonstrated at this time, and smooth and high-quality cutting edges can still be obtained.
water jet cut metal? What factors should you consider ?
Good Question! Generally, 3 factors below you must know.
table carring capacity
- The table size of the water jet cutting machine is determined by the maximum size of the material you want to cut.
- The load capacity (Kg/㎡) of the water jet table is determined by the density of your material, which is generally 500Kg/㎡. If you need a larger one, you can tell the salesperson when you buy it.
- If you need to cut metal pipes, you should choose a pipe cutting table and provide the size of the pipe to the salesperson so that they can choose the right fixture for you.
pump output capacity
- The waterjet ultra-high pressure pump is like the engine of a car, which determines the cutting capacity of your waterjet cutting equipment, that is, how thick the plate can be cut.
- There are two types of waterjet pumps: direct drive pumps and plunger pumps, but you have to choose traditional plunger pumps for metal cutting because direct drive pumps cannot provide too high output pressure.
- You need to combine the three most important parameters of the waterjet pump: power rate, maximum pressure, and HP WATER FLOW RATE. Just like the principle of a wooden barrel, a single high value cannot determine the cutting capacity of the waterjet. You can refer to the technical terms for the meaning of the parameters.
- In addition, the intensifier and accumulator will affect the performance of the waterjet pump. You can check the pump comparison table. Of course, it is easier and more convenient to communicate directly with the sales.
3D cutting or not
- The water jet cutting head is the executive part. For cutting metal, just cut off, use a 3-axis head. If you need vertical cutting (upper and lower surfaces are parallel), you need an AB5-axis head with small angle compensation. If you need 3D cutting, you need to use a large-angle AC5-axis head. This head has a 360° rotation on the C axis and a maximum 89° tilt on the A axis.
- If you cannot predict your business needs in the next 10 years, it is recommended that you directly choose an AC5-axis head, because it can realize all the functions of 3-axis and AB5-axis. More importantly, the electrical control system and software control system of different heads are completely different and almost impossible to change later, so you need to make a good decision when purchasing.
