Water Jet Cutting Process
The water jet cutting process uses a high velocity water jet mixed with an abrasive to cut materials.
The water jet cutting process begins with the pressurization of water to high pressures using intensifier pumps, the pressures can go up to 100,000 psi in some applications. The pressurized water is routed to the cutting heads at the cutting table, via high pressure lines. At the cutting head there are additional components that are critical to the cutting process. At the cutting head the pressurized water stream is forced through an orifice that accelerates the water jet stream to high velocity. From the orifice the water jet stream enters a mixing tube where the cutting abrasive is introduced. Once the cutting abrasive is introduced in to the stream, the stream then enters the focusing tube where the water jet stream is directed towards the material for cutting.
Water jet cutting is a CNC controlled process, with parts designed and drawn in CAD programs. All of our water jet machines have programmable CNC controls.
There are a large variety of factors that affect water jet cutting. To get a good quality, tight tolerance cut there are a variety of factors that need to be met. Nozzle height, cut speed, abrasive rate, orifice size, and pressure all play roles in the cut.
Intensifier Pumps- Intensifier pumps are used to pressurize the water used in the cutting process to the high pressures needed, the pressure that the intensifiers crreate range from 30,000 psi to 100,000 psi depending on the application. The higher pressure water used the higher the cut rate will be resulting in reduced costs. We use KMT Intensifier Pumps and have a total of 4 intensifier pumps, 2- 50 hp 60,00 psi pumps, 1-100 hp 60,000 psi pump, and 1-125 hp 90,000 pump. Seals in the intensifiers wear over time, we replace these componenets on a regular schedule to ensure efficient cutting.
Orifice- The orifice is used to concentrate the high pressure water into a high velocity stream. The orifices range in diameter from .003" to .022", we generally use orifices .005" to .013" in diameter. We replace these components as necessary to ensure quality.
Mixing Tube- Where the abrasive is introduced into the water jet stream.
Abrasive- Water jet cutting is a cutting process that uses erosion to cut away material and produce a cutting abrasive is introduced into the water stream to accomplish this. The amount of abrasive in the water stream affects the quality of the finished edge on the product. We use a fine garnet abrasive as our cutting abrasive with the garnet feed rate adjustable for each individual head. Recycling the cutting abrasive is a way to reduce costs in water jet cutting and we have employed garnet recylcing technology in our water jet cutting systems using in house designed recycling equipment.
Focusing Tube- The focusing tube is a nozzle that focuses the stream towards the material to cut and aids in constricting the water jet stream to the correct dimensions. Keeping the water jet stream constricted to the correct dimensions allows for accurate cutting with tight tolerances. Focusing tubes do wear over time with the water and garnet stream passing through, we repalce these focusing tubes on a regular basis to ensure that we keep to the tight tolerance and keep high quality cut edges.
Cutting Head- Location of orifice, mixing tube, and focusing tube. This is where all the components come together to create the water jet. The cutting head is what moves on the machine to allow for the cutting paths to be followed, the cuttign heads can also move in the vertical direction to ensure that nozzle is the correct height fromt he material being cut. Some machines have multiple cutting heads to allow for cutting large quantities, Campo Sheet Metal has a 6 head cutting machine to allow for high volume cutting.
Controller- Where the parameters for the machine can be controlled and the part/sheet being cut is selected.
Table- The table which the material being cut is supported by. The table top consists of slats that the material sits on. The table is filled with water to dissapate the energy of the water jet stream. The cutting tables can vary in size to accomodate different sized materials. Campo Sheet Metal has 3 tables of varying sizes ; 6' x 8', 13' x 40', and 13' x 35'.
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