Cut Stacked Material with Waterjet
We
frequently get asked whether waterjet can cut stacked material. Here’s a
picture of a test cut we did recently with 14 layers of 0.040” (1 mm) aluminum
(aluminium) stacked to 0.56” (14 mm) thick.
Stacked
material will cut slightly slower than the equivalent thickness of solid
material because some of the abrasive and water will get between each layer,
reducing the jet’s power. Clamping the stack together tightly is
important to minimize this. This loss of power is typically also seen in
slightly rougher edge quality each layer down in the stack. This stack showed
little of this.
The
major benefit of stacking is with small, thin parts like this. Because of
acceleration and deceleration, the waterjet never really gets up to its optimum
cutting speed in small parts and small holes. This part might take 15
seconds if you were to cut it as one layer. If this were 8.5 inches
(216mm) of cutting, this represents an effective cutting speed of 34 inches per
minute (864 mm/min). The stack of 14 layers might take 2 minutes and 50
seconds. This gives an effective cutting speed of 42 ipm (1067 mm/min).
Time lost to material handling is reduced as the stack of material can be
loaded, clamped, cut and unloaded all at once, versus having to do that 14
times.
Thank you and have a wonderful weekend,
Jeff Day and the WARDJet Team
Labels: water jet cutting, water jet cutting machines, water jets, waterjet cutting machines
posted by Unknown at 12:42 PM


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