Water jet cutting

Water jet cutting uses nozzles to produce a high pressure water jet carrying fine abrasive particles for cutting. This method is very effective in cutting both metallic and non-metallic materials. The process uses high capacity pumps with very high water and electricity requirements. This method can cut thick gauge stainless steel (>100mm) without creating a heat affected zone (HAZ) and without changing the metallurgical organization of the workpiece. Although the water jet kerf quality is good, the bevel angle of the cut surface is larger when the cut section is thicker. It is not economical to cut thin steel plates by this method, but stacking multiple thin steel plates on top of each other can cut more than one workpiece at a time.

By cutting method, "water cutting" is divided into two kinds of cutting without sand and cutting with sand. In the aviation industry, most of the cutting is done by adding garnet sand. Garnet sand is hard, sharp, and has good cutting power when cutting, so it can cut any material. If there is no garnet sand, then both the accuracy and depth of the cut will be greatly reduced. Experiment shows that if you don't add garnet sand can only cut 3mm titanium plate, and the cut out is jagged. After adding garnet grit, it can cut 30mm titanium plate, and the accuracy is greatly improved.

Most of the aircraft are high-strength, lightweight composite materials, cutting accuracy, cutting temperature and other aspects have very high requirements. The use of "water cutting" can not only improve the cutting accuracy, but also effectively control the material is not easy to thermal deformation. At the same time, "water cutting" can cut a large thickness and a wide range of materials, and can achieve perfect cutting of composite carbon fiber materials, turbine blades and metal parts.

In the past, during the manufacturing process, workers were often affected by harmful gases and dust, which caused great harm to their health. With "water cutting", not only can the processing be safe and environmentally friendly, but also can save energy and reduce production costs.