Page 30 - MetalForming February 2017

Waterjet Cutting
as quickly as the machine can move.” Common-line cutting is another speed-assist for waterjet cutting. Because the process creates the same taper on each side of the cut, parts can be nested tightly and two part sides can be processed with a single cut. Plasma cut- ting and other processes cannot perform
such common-line cuts.
Recyclability Can Cut Operating Costs
On top of everything else, waterjet cutting machines have a lower capi- tal-investment cost. Operating costs are lower, too, and with water and abra- sive filtering and reclaiming, fabricators have the opportunity to save even more. A typical single-head laser uses about 1 gal. of water per minute, and fabricators employ recycling and fil- tering to recoup some of that.
Abrasives are one area that still cause some trepidation for fabricators, according to Caron and Dumas.
“There is some concern as to the
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a variety of materials, including thick, hard material.”
Another waterjet-cutting benefit: The process does not impart heat- affected zones, a byproduct of heat- related cutting processes that can result in detrimental physical-property changes to the material. Heat and oper- ating particulars of other processes make them unable to properly cut bonded material or laminates. Water- jet-cutting machines, on the other hand, can handle bonded and lami- nated material with ease. Brass bonded to stainless steel? Waterjets will cut it, lasers won’t.
As for speed, fabricators can slice cutting time by employing multiple cutting heads.
“Users can add a second cutting head and double production without adding another operator and machine,” says Dumas. “Some machines employ four or even eight heads in the case of cutting foam, for instance, using very small nozzle orifices, so they can cut
amount of abrasive used and how to recycle it,” Dumas says. “That prevents some fabricators from adopting the technology.”
Toward that end, and because abra- sive can surpass 50 percent of the oper- ating cost of a system, Hypertherm has been working on abrasive reclamation. The company is beta testing EcoSift, an abrasive-recycling system that allows users to capture, recycle and reuse spent garnet. Key to recyclability is the fact that, when cutting at pres- sures of 4000 bar or below, only a por- tion of the abrasive is pulverized. As much as 60 percent reaches the bottom of the tank without significantly chang- ing shape or size—it can be reused without impacting cut quality. Besides savings related to garnet reclamation, the system can reduce abrasive storage, transport and waste-disposal time and costs.
“We are optimistic that we can recy- cle close to 50 percent of the used gar- net with this system,” says Caron. MF
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MetalForming/February 2017
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