Waterjet Cutting in comparison to Laser Cutting
- Cutting can cut many materials that lasers cannot. (Reflective materials in particular, such as Aluminium and Copper.
- Uniformity of material is not very important to Abrasive waterjet cutting.
- Abrasive waterjet cutting does not heat your part. Thus there is no thermal distortion or hardening of the material.
- Precision abrasive waterjet cutting can obtain about the same or higher tolerances than laser cutting (especially as thickness increases).
- Abrasive waterjet cutting can machine thicker materials. How thick you can cut is a function of how long you are willing to wait. 2" (50mm) steel and 3" (76mm) aluminium is quite common. I heard of people doing up to 10" (250mm) steel, and 24" (600mm) thick glass with high horsepower systems. Once you get over 2" (50mm) thick it is very difficult to get precision, however. Lasers seem to have a maximum of 0.5" (12mm) - 0.75" (19mm).
- Abrasive waterjet cutting is safer. No burnt fingers, no noxious fumes, and no fires. (You still have to keep those fingers out of the beam.)
- Abrasive waterjet cutting is more environmentally friendly.
- Abrasive waterjet cutting is capable of similar tolerances on thin parts, and better on parts thicker than .5"
- Abrasive waterjet cutting does not lose much "focus" when cutting over uneven surfaces.
- While laser cutting is often faster on thinner materials...
- ...it may be cheaper and faster to simply buy two or three abrasive jet machining centers to do the same work
- ...you can stack materials, so you are cutting multiple thin parts simultaneously.
- ...you can run additional cutting heads in parallel on a single machine
- Abrasive waterjet cutting does not create "scaly" edges, which makes it easier to make a high quality weld.
| | |
