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Waterjet CuttingWaterjet Cutting Services

  • Custom water jet cutting

  • Cut virtually any material

  • Prototypes, short runs and volume runs

  • Reduce costs with minimal fixturing and tooling

  • Quick change out of materials

  • Stacking of raw material allows cutting of multiple parts in a single pass

  • Up to 100% utilization of material

Water Jet Cutting Capabilities

  • Thicknesses from 1/16” to 8” (1mm to 200mm)
  • 6’x12’ 87000 psi with articulating cutting shear for taper free features
  • Parts can be finely processed,
  • Complicated contours can be cut
  • Bridges and separating parts of less thanW 1mm can be manufactured without difficulty from stiff materials

Waterjet CuttingWater Jet Cutting Overview

Basic water jet technology is both simple and extremely complex. When water is pressurized up to 60,000 pounds (or more) per square inch (psi) and forced through a tiny opening, it can cut a variety of soft materials including food, paper and baby diapers, rubber and foam. When small amounts of abrasive particles, such as garnet, are mixed into the water jet stream, the resulting "abrasive water jet" can cut virtually any hard material such as metal, composites, stone and glass. This process is known as water jet cutting, one of the fastest growing major machine tool processes in the world due to its versatility and ease of operation. There are virtually no limits to what water jets are capable of cutting and machining.

Benefits of Water Jet Cutting

There are many cost-saving and efficiency-bearing advantages to water jet cutting over competing methods. Material usage is maximized while unit cost and scrap are reduced, utilizing a tight nesting feature. Heat-affected zones are also eliminated, thus doing away with costly and time consuming secondary procedures. Flexibility is another halmark to water jetting, as it can be used to cut any shape in a single step from virtually any material. Jobs that usually take hours using traditional methods can be completed in just minutes, further reducing cost.

Equipment

Ometek utilizes the Flow Hyperpressure Water Jet Cutting System which provides the highest pressure and lowest operating cost of any water jet system in the world. It allows us to cut 20-30% faster over 60,000 psi systems, thus reducing part cost and using less abrasive (30-50%) material to cut. FlowMaster Software allows us to nest and cut….in order to make the most of the raw material being cut.

Typical Applications

Ometek’s water jet cutting services are employed for a wide variety of industries and applications, but typically make sense for smaller volume, higher thicknesses and unusual shapes.

Materials

FlowThe water jet cutting process can be used to cut parts from practically any material including:

  • Stainless Steel
  • Mild Steel
  • Aluminum
  • Copper
  • Rubber
  • Foam
  • Cork
  • Plastics
  • Composites
  • Glass
  • Ceramics