The decision to add a water jet cutting system demands a comprehensive evaluation process. So, let’s look at what goes into deciding between buying a water jet system and outsourcing metal cutting.
If you’re reading this blog post, it’s likely that you’re already aware of the versatility of a water jet cutting system in a machining operation. These tools can cut almost any material you or your clients require with unmatched precision and first-cut edge quality. Understanding how the type and quality of your consumables influence cutting costs and component life is crucial for making informed decisions and optimizing your operations.
Titanium can be combined (alloyed) with other elements to produce strong, lightweight alloys for many industries including aerospace, military, industrial processes, automotive, agriculture, medical, orthopedic, and more. Titanium alloys have excellent strength to weight ratios, high melting points, and are extremely resistant to nearly all forms of corrosion. Although titanium is not as hard as some grades of heat-treated steel, it is a very difficult metal to machine resulting in high tooling costs with a risk of scrap.
Depending upon the stock material and your feed rates, garnet often represents the largest operating cost of waterjet cutting tools.
A lesser-known option that works with some material types is cutting stacked material with your water jet. This article will provide some helpful tips and cautions as you explore this option for your material.
Water jet cutting systems are high-precision tools engineered to produce the most complex cuts with the best first-cut edge finish in the largest number of materials. The old saying, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” definitely describes water jets. Yet, the quality and characteristics of each part impact how much greater the sum will be. Change the quality of a part, and the sum (performance in cutting systems) changes.
Waterjets cut the widest variety of materials of any cutting tool while consistently delivering superior precision and flawless first-cut edge finishes. The material being cut is usually purchased in sheets and laid directly upon metal slats that are supported above the catch tank.
However, the spacing between the slats may be too wide to catch small parts, the material being cut may be soft and prone to sagging, or the steel finish of the slats may mar the material’s surface finish during loading or via backsplash that occurs during the cut.
Lasers (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) are a popular cutting technology within the metal fabrication industry. To oversimplify, the laser cutting process uses a beam of amplified light to rapidly melt a cut line through materials creating the cut in a process referred to as “thermal separation”.
“Made in America” claims are back in a big way these days. Not that they ever went away entirely, but the political, economic, and pandemic realities of the 21st Century have encouraged American companies to claim they are making their products on American soil and take steps to do so. And the same influences have more Americans asking for home-grown choices.
The word blog is a combined version of the words “web” and “log” or “web logging.” At their inception, blogs were simply an online diary where people could keep a log about their daily lives on the web. They have now expanded to include informational websites run by an individual, group, or corporation that offers regularly updated content (blog post) about a topic.
