WATERJET CUTTING BEYOND 400 MPA

摘要

Plain waterjet cutting is used to cut only soft materials like rubber, plastic, paper, some soft composite materials and very thin sheet metals in the industry because of its limited power. Cutting of thicker metals and harder composites is possible when the water pressure is increased. This paper includes a comprehensive discussion of the waterjet cutting of thin sheet metals and laminated metal composites up to 700 Mpa. Firstly, the design of a plain waterjet cutting head is discussed. The effects of the upstream tube and the orifice on jet coherency were investigated. The required tightening torque for sealing was calculated. Next, the cutting performance of plain waterjet based on the maximum cutting speed and the maximum depth of cut is defined. It was found that the cutting performance based on the cutting speed improves as the pressure increases. If the cutting performance is defined in terms of the maximum depths of cut, the improvement is much lower.