When you use a water jet cutter, you don’t need to limit it to one or two types of projects. In fact, water jet cutting is used in all kinds of applications to cut just about any type of material with a tremendous amount of accuracy.
For example, there are some companies that use water jet cutting in their manufacturing of urethane parts. Urethane is a type of high-performance rubber that can be easily molded and shaped with a great deal of accuracy, with many different finishing options available.
Some types of water jet cutting applications allow manufacturers to make thousands of parts from a single urethane sheet. The accurate cutting ability of water jet cutters in San Francisco, CA means manufacturers don’t have to worry about as much waste resulting from a single piece of material. This means the material goes farther than it would using other applications, allowing these manufacturers to save a great deal of money.
Normally, casting urethane products with a traditional open cast method would leave a lot more room for error. If the open parts are not then de-molded quickly enough, the finished urethane products will have varying sizes, which is obviously not good. Being able to cast sheets and allow them to cure to their actual, final size before the cutting process begins takes this guesswork out of the equation, resulting in perfect, consistent and accurate parts every single time.
This means increased production rate over time as well. Manufacturers working on urethane products with water jet cutters can work on other projects while the machine is cutting, because the manufacturers know they can rely on that machine to perform the job with a great deal of accuracy.
Cutting laminate products
Another example of how water jet cutting can be used is in cutting laminated materials. In many cases, water jet cutters are actually the only real feasible solution for cutting laminated materials with any degree of accuracy.
Laminates are naturally difficult to cut for a variety of reasons, but water jet cutters’ pinpoint accuracy allows you to get crisp cuts even when those laminates are stacked multiple layers deep. Consider this—manufacturers often have thick layers of glass, metal and other harder materials stacked on each other when using a water jet to cut. They can certainly accomplish the same thing with laminated materials.
There is always something of a risk involved when piercing a material with a water jet that is more than one layer and bonded together. Normally the material is stronger than the bonding agent, so as the water jet passes through the first layer it will suddenly find less resistance to go sideways than the resistance that exists to go through the next layer of material. This can result in delamination.
Fortunately there are many methods you can use to prevent this from happening, allowing you to quickly cut through your laminate with outstanding precision.
For more information about applications for water jet cutters in San Francisco, CA, contact Mach 1 Waterjet, Inc. today.