Quality
Waterjet Newsletter – 03/07/2006
An Earlier Study on Waterjet
Cutting Applications Today pure waterjet cutting is
being used in many industries. However for someone who is new in this field
and wants to know its various applications, it is not easy to find a
comprehensive report on this subject. This short article will bring to your
attention such a report by Harris and Brierley*.
Even though it was dated back to 1972, you will find valuable information
that you can’t easily find elsewhere. This report was a result of a research
program carried out in National Research Council of Canada. It was focused on
the applications of waterjet cutting in an industrial environment. A total of 12 nozzle designs were
shown in this paper. Materials used to construct the nozzles include diamond,
sapphire, and tungsten carbide. Sapphire broke more easily. This problem was
improved with a beryllium-copper mount. The issue with a diamond orifice was
failure of the sintered material that supports the diamond. A sapphire insert
with a 20° entrance angle was proposed
for optimum jet quality. A metal-to-metal seal was compared with an O-ring seal and found to be more reliable
for pressure above 20K
psi. Results of cutting tests on
several materials, including newsprint, asbestos cement board, hardwood pulp
sheet, leather, high density polyethylene, high impact styrene, ABS, cotton
reinforced rubber belting, boxboard, were presented in a table. Test
parameters include material thickness (0.016 – 0.75”), nozzle (0.002 to
0.007”), pressure (7.5K to 55K psi), and cutting speed
(15 – 71,338 ipm). Three types of pumps were
discussed: pneumatic, hydraulic, and mechanical. Pneumatically driven pumps
are suitable for medium pressure and low flow applications. Hydraulically
driven pumps (intensifier) usually provide high pressure and medium flow with
excellent controllability of both. Mechanically driven pumps (direct-drive)
typically produce high flows at low and medium pressure. A flow-pressure
chart was overlaid with curves showing flow characteristics of nozzles with different
diameters. A similar chart was overlaid with regions of applications. Paper
cutting fell within the overlapped areas of all three types of pumps. Rock
cutting was more favorable with mechanical and maybe also hydraulic types of
pumps. Wood cutting appeared outside the capacity of any of these three types
of pumps because it demands both high pressure and high flow, though a
preliminary cost analysis showed that the potential savings from the smaller
kerfs of waterjet cutting may justify development of a pump suitable for wood
cutting. Operating costs of a waterjet system were plot on a pressure-cost
chart, marked with regions for all three types of pumps and regions for
paper, rock, and wood cutting. * Harris, H. D., & Brierley,
W. H. (1972). Application of water jet cutting. In T. E. Brock & C. A.
Richardson (Ed.), Proceedings of the
First International Symposium on Jet Cutting Technology, Coventry,
England, 5th-7th April, Paper G1. Beyond High
Pressure · MicroJet offers a full
compliment of fabrication services, including waterjet and laser cutting, forming, welding, assembly and engineering to
customers in |
|
QualJet
LLC
Quality Waterjet Spare Parts Specialist · Quality
Waterjet Spare Parts o Meets/exceeds
OEM standards o 30%
longer operation life time than competing products · Extensive
Parts Coverage for: o Flow
style, IR Style o 40K/55K
pumps o Intensifiers
o On/off
valves o Cutting
head o Swivels · OEM
Expert o 20+
year waterjet OEM experience (via OH Precision) o Accept
small OEM order Durable, Compact 40K
PSI Pumps
· Long
operation lifetime · Highly
cost-effective · Light
weight and compact · Contact
us for o
Custom power end o
50K psi models o
Private labeling o
Custom design QualJet LLC
1-866-QUALJET (782-5538) Fax: 425-378-7776 Email: info@qualjet.com Website: www.qualjet.com To unsubscribe the
newsletter: unsubscribe@qualjet.com For newsletter archive: www.qualjet.com/Newsletter.htm
Copyright ©2005, QualJet LLC |
|
|