Articles

Waterjet cutting offers several advantages over other machining technologies:

1. Lower cost. Waterjet parts are typically cut from sheet or plate material and require no special clamps, fixtures or tool changes. This translates to quicker production and lower cost.
2. Wide variety of materials supported. Waterjet cutting can be used on most metals, many plastics, wood and stone. It can be used to cut many materials that would be difficult to machine using other methods, such as heat treated alloy steel.
3. No heat-affected zone.  Machining methods like laser cutting and EDM heat the material and the parts will need to be heat treated again after machining. Waterjet cut parts retain their heat treatment when cut. This means that you can start with pre-heat treated material and keep your costs down.

I've been running Big Blue Saw for a few years now. When people ask me what I do, I explain that I help people turn their ideas into real parts made out of metal, plastic, or wood. Their next question is usually "Who would need that?" or "What kinds of things do people want?" At Big Blue Saw, we have dealt with thousands of applications for waterjet cut parts. Here is a just a partial list of the types of applications we have seen:

 

 

3D printer frames	Head gaskets
Animal cages	Heat sinks
Arcade game joystick mounts	Industrial controls
Bicycle dropouts	Industrial HVAC equipment
Business cards	Kite fabric templates
Computer casemods	Knife blanks
Control panels	Lighting fixtures
Costumes	Machining fixtures
Dashboard panels for airplanes and airplane simulators	Motor mounting brackets
Dashboard panels for cars	Motorcycle dogbones
Dashboard panels for cars	Movie props
Desk nameplates	Nixie clocks
Drain covers	Oil pipelines
Electronic bus bars	Painting jigs
Electronics enclosures	Prop replicas
Fighting robot frames	Rope belaying devices
Fine art	Signs
Fireworks control panels	Sporting goods
Fixtures for science experiments	Stencils
“Free energy” machines	Test tube racks
Gears	Trophies
Go kart frames	Ventilation registers
Ground straps	Video monitor brackets
Guitar capos	Wedding cake toppers
Guitar frames	Wheels
Guitar pick guards	Windmill contactors
Handles

 

Glossary

Illustration : A waterjet cut part

 

• Cutting line: The curve which was followed by the waterjet cutting stream to make the part.
• Cut edge: The parts of the material exposed by waterjet cutting. It is perpendicular to the faces of the part.
• Face: The flat, unmachined areas of the finished part. Each waterjet cut part has two faces: the top face, where the waterjet stream enters the material, and the bottom face, where the material originally rested on slats and where the waterjet stream exits. The face is perpendicular to the cut edge(s).
• Frosting: Abrasion around the cutting line caused by stray abrasive particles from the waterjet cutting stream.

 Illustration : Frosting is visible near the cutting line on the top face of this waterjet cut part

 

Illustration : Frosting on the bottom face of this waterjet cut part as the waterjet stream
spreads out after leaving the piece.