What to Consider Before Buying
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What you need to consider before buying?
What material do you want to cut?
Waterjets can cut almost any material.
Pure waterjets can quickly and accurately cut soft materials such as rubber, foam, and other gasket material.
Abrasive waterjets can cut almost any other material over a very wide range of thicknesses:
- Virtually all metals, including hardened tool steel, stainless steel, aluminum, copper and titanium
- Non-tempered glass, including multi-layer laminated safety glass
- Composites
- Laminates
- Stone
- Most ceramics
SAME Waterjet cutting porcelain plate video
How many parts do you want to cut?
Set-up time for a waterjet with an advanced control system is minimal. The advanced control software can automatically program the cutting path of the desired part directly from a CAD drawing. Just lightly secure the material stock to the cutting table and enter the material type and thickness into the control computer.
The control system does the rest and an accurate part is produced on the first run. This capability makes waterjet a perfect process for short-run and one-off production parts. At the same time, modern nesting software means that waterjets are also ideal for mass production of parts with minimum waste.
What size table do you need?
Waterjet cutting tables is now available in a wide range of standard sizes. The two considerations in selecting a table size are the size of the part to be made and the size of the stock material to be used. It is generally easiest and most economical to err on the side of a larger table that will handle all intended material stock sizes and future larger parts.
However, sometimes space limitations mandate a smaller size. As a result of the design of our tables, SAME offers the smallest footprint relative to the table size thereby conserving valuable shop floor space.
What kind of function is needed for cutting?
Waterjet cutting has some characteristics that conventional manufacturing processes do not have, for example, cutting has no heat-affected zone. This means that there is no thermal deformation when processing complex parts, which is particularly attractive in certain applications.
Waterjets are very good at cutting very complex shapes and contours, no matter what material is cut, the cost of waste is extremely low.
What environmental factors should you consider?
Water jets were a cause for concern in the early days because of the small noise, which was generated by exposed water currents. But in today’s system, cutting under thin water not only reduces noise significantly but also keeps cut particles in water to remove dust.
No toxic fumes are produced, and cutting materials are not contaminated with cutting oil.
How much does it cost to run and maintain a waterjet?
There are many factors to be taken into account in calculating the operating cost of the waterjet, including whether the cutting head of the machine is one or two, the defective parts, pump power, water supply cost, and abrasive cost, etc.
Based on all these variables, the running cost is determined by how you handle the water jet. THE SAME Water jet generally runs at a cost range of $13-$20 per hour.
RELATED QUESTIONS
Our friendly sales and applications team will be happy to review your application and help you determine the right system for you.
Generally no. The waterjet edge quality is similar to a fine sandblast surface, with no heat effects or dross.
SAME are willing to give our time free of charge for basic remote support, questions, and help in solving small problems or for general advice.
General preventive services and breakdowns outside of warranty agreements will be charged at the regional service rate.
