It can be difficult to find the right application for cutting laminated materials, but if you have a water jet cutting machine handy, you’ll find it to be the ideal tool for the job, and in some cases perhaps the only feasible tool for what you have in mind.

Water jet cutting services in San Francisco, CA are highly versatile, and can be employed to cut through just about any type of material with outstanding precision and efficiency. Laminates tend to be difficult to cut, so you need a powerful and precise means of cutting through them. Water jet cutters can easily slice through materials that are stacked up on each other and bonded together, including laminated materials.

Of course, there are some rather broad differences with regard to how well they can be machined with the use of water jet cutters. There are some materials that work well and won’t see a whole lot of delamination, but there are others that can be quite difficult and delaminate very easily, so it may take a bit of experimentation to see how the various types of materials react to the process.

You should do whatever you can to make reducing the risk of delamination a priority. Here are just a few examples of some steps you can take to cut down on the potential for delamination:

• Choose materials with strong bonds: If you have the capability to do so, you should always be sure to select materials that have been strongly bonded together. While it’s okay for there to be variations in adhesive or the amount of pressure used to bond the materials, what you cannot settle for is a weak bond, as this is much more likely to result in delamination.
• Pierce points: As a general rule, you should try to avoid having a large number of pierce points in the part you’re machining.
• Low pressure: When first piercing the material that you’re cutting with the water jet, make sure to do so at a lower pressure, which helps to prevent delamination. You can turn the pressure up after the material has been pierced and you start to cut.
• Pre-drill: Depending on the material, it may also be beneficial to pre-drill some of your start holes, especially if you think you’re going to run the risk of the material delaminating at the time of piercing.
• Abrasive and flow management: You might also consider starting the abrasive and water flow while you’ve got the cutting head off the material. You can then move into the material from the side rather than using the traditional piercing maneuver, which ultimately makes it less likely that you’ll experience material delamination during the piercing process.

These are just a few examples of some of the strategies you can employ to avoid delamination when you’re using water jet cutting on laminated materials. For more information about our water jet cutting services in San Francisco, CA, we encourage you to get in touch with Mach 1 Waterjet, Inc. today with any questions.