Technology description

The working principle is as follows:

After the filter, water is compressed in a device called a multiplier to pressures of 4000 bar and above. This multiplication of water pressure from 5–6 bar to 4000 bar is possible with an oil hydraulic pump that provides about 215 bar of pressure.

Thus compressed water passes through a diamond head that focuses the water into a 0.3 mm jet. The speed of the water at the nozzle exit is about 800 m/s. If abrasive is added to such fast water, a powerful jet with pronounced abrasive properties is obtained.

When CNC guidance is added to such a system, you get a machine that cuts all types of materials with precision within a tolerance range of 0.05 mm.

One very important thing about this technology is that the cut is cold — there is no heat-affected zone. All materials can be cut without any change of the crystal structure in the cutting zone.

In principle, 5 cut qualities are achieved

• Q1 — Separating cut: high-speed cut, the roughest material separation.
• Q2 — Penetrating cut: a slightly more stable system, still at high speed.
• Q3 — Clean cut: optimal results in terms of further processing and achieved cut quality.
• Q4 — Good cut quality: quality of the processed surface and precision.
• Q5 — Exceptional cut quality: high surface quality and great precision, but very low cutting speed.

The quality of the processed surface (roughness) ranges from 3.2 µm to 50 µm.