General Background

General Background

"Waterjet is a generic term used to describe equipment that uses a high pressure stream of water for cutting or cleaning purposes" (Waterjets.org, 2013). Waterjetting was first discovered by the romans using hydraulic mining techniques that used water to move and dislodge underground deposits. This has since been developed over many years to now, enabling water jetting to be used in many applications due to the uniqueness of this technique. There are two types of water jetting; pure waterjet where only water is used and abrasivejet where abrasives are added for more challenging and robust materials.

Waterjet cutting can be used for cutting printed circuit boards, wire stripping and printed circuit boards. In this instance the water is powerful enough to cut or strip applications without damaging or crushing anything around it. This is similar to how the water jet is used for a cleaning purpose as it is able to strip the dirt/grease or external material without damaging the core of the material/product. This is commonly used for stripping paint off road markings.

Abrasivejet cutting would be used for tool steel and wood cutting. The abrasives used sand down the surfaces leaving a smooth finish whilst been able to cut through robust materials without the need for using heat, meaning the structure of the material has not been altered thus the strength of the material is retained.

Advantages of using waterjet cutting is; that the process is pollution free, there are no heat effected zones (HAZ), process can be safer than conventional methods, low vibrations from equipment, precision due to having a small kerf or cutting width and lack of wasted material meaning its more cost effective. However nozzle life can be short and very thick parts cannot be cut.

Equipment

Due to the rapidly evolving industry this has become and the constant updates