What Should You

Consider Before Buying a Waterjet Cutting Machine?

A waterjet cutting machine is a serious investment for any company, small or large. So knowing what to consider before you purchase could save your business lots of time and cost. Below are some of the main things you should consider before buying a machine. Answering these questions will help determine the machine type that is best suited for your application.

Things to consider are:

COST

material

size

features

WHAT MATERIALS

Will I be Cutting?

With many other alternative cutting methods, the types of materials that are needing to be cut is the first point that you should focus on. However, because Waterjets can cut almost any material, the material to be cut is not so important. While almost any waterjet can cut almost any material, some machines are still better suited to certain materials. For example, when cutting steel you will typically choose a more powerful and a more accurate waterjet, so that you can cut it faster with more precision, compared to if you were cutting glass. Before we move on, let’s have a look at the range of materials that you can cut on a waterjet. Waterjets can quickly and accurately cut soft materials such as; rubber, foam, cork, and other gasket material with a pure water stream.

When cutting harder materials an abrasive is added into the stream. You can then cut almost any material, over a very wide range of thicknesses, for example;

VIRTUALLY ALL METALS

including hardened tool steel, stainless steel, aluminum, opper and titanium

NON-TEMPERED GLASS

including multi-layer laminated safety glass

Composites

Laminates

Stone

Most ceramics

how many

Parts Will I Be Cutting?

Waterjets are great for both short run and prototype parts, but also for higher volume production application. The reason why waterjets are suitable for both has to do with the software that they are controlled by. Techni’s advanced control software can automatically program the cutting path of a desired part directly from a CAD, drawing meaning set up time is reduced between cuts. All you need to do is lightly secure the material in place, enter the material type and thickness into the control computer, and the machine will do the rest. This software capability is great for short run and one-off production parts. Nesting software on the other hand is ideal for mass production of parts with minimum waste. Techni’s machines are also capable of running without an operator present. This means large production runs can be set up on the machine and left without an operator to supervise while the machine produces the parts, often overnight and throughout the weekend. This is referred to as “Lights Out Cutting”.

TECHNI Waterjet Side Panel - TECHNI Waterjet

what size of

Table Will I Need?

Our waterjet machines come in a range of sizes to help suit all types of businesses and applications. These are things such as material types, part sizes, part accuracy, production runs, & workshop size and staff availability. If you have the room, we always consider pointing our customers in the direction of owning larger machines with bigger bed sizes, so that they are not met with the limitations in the future if they ever have the need to cut parts that are bigger in size. We are also aware that space limitations can be a major factor to consider, so we also have smaller machines available.

Our smallest machine, known as the i35–G2, is sized at 1770L x 2600W x 2050H mm and is great for smaller workshops and small precision parts and prototype parts. Whereas our largest machine being i1033–G2 which is sized at 12800L x 5400W x 2200H mm is great for bigger workshops, large parts and high production applications.

Technical Specifications

i35–G2

Upgrade Option – Linear Scale Feedback
Accuracy ± 0.05mm/m – 0.002″
Repeatability ± 0.025mm/m – 0.001″

DOWNLOAD datasheet

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