Water Jet Machining

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 What is Waterjet Cutting?

Erosion process of material

 Introduction

 Key element in WJM – a jet of water.

 Water jet travels at velocities as high as 900 m/s (approximately

Mach 3).

 When the water stream strikes a workpiece surface, the erosive

force of water removes the material rapidly.

 The water, in this case, acts like a saw and cuts a narrow groove in
the workpiece material.

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 Types of Waterjets

Waterjet (WJ): using only high pressure water

jet energy with no additives
Abrasive Waterjet (AWJ): involves the
entrainment of abrasive particles into the high
pressure water jet
 Energy Creation

Water generated from pump is focused into a

small component called “Orifice” to generate
the high pressure water Jet that travels around
Mach 2 or Mach 3
 WJM – Mechanism

Intensifier acts as a high pressure pump which produces

water pressure 40 times that of oil. Po * Ao
Pw 
Aw
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Water Pumping – Animation

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 Waterjet
TOPWORK CONSUMABLES
ON/OFF VALVE

HP WATER
HYDRAULIC OIL

LP WATER

Electric Motor & Hydraulic

Power Pack
 WJM – Components & Functions
1. Hydraulic Pump
 Powered from a 30 kilowatt (kW) electric motor
 Supplies oil at pressures as high as 117 bars.
 Compressed oil drives a reciprocating plunger pump termed an
intensifier.
 The hydraulic pump offers complete flexibility for water jet cutting
and cleaning applications.

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 WJM – Components & Functions
2. Intensifier
 Accepts the water at low pressure(typically 4 bar) and expels it,
through an accumulator, at higher pressures of 3800 bar.
 The intensifier converts the energy from the low-pressure
hydraulic fluid into ultrahigh-pressure water.
 The hydraulic system provides fluid power to a reciprocating
piston in the intensifier center section.
 The intensifier assembly, with a plunger on each side of the
piston, generates pressure in both directions.
 During the plunger inlet stroke, filtered water enters the high-
pressure cylinder through the check value assembly.
 After the plunger reverses direction, the water is compressed
and exits at ultrahigh pressure. 10
Intensifier

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 WJM – Components & Functions
3. Accumulator
 Maintains the continuous flow of the high-pressure
water and eliminates pressure fluctuations.

4. High Pressure Tubing

 Transports pressurized water to the cutting head.
 Typical tube diameters are 6 to 14 mm.
 The cutting action is controlled either manually or
through a remote-control valve specially designed for
this purpose.
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 WJM – Components & Functions
5. Jet Cutting Nozzle
 Nozzle provides a coherent water jet stream for optimum
cutting of low-density, soft material that is considered
unmachinable by conventional methods.
 Nozzles are normally made from synthetic sapphire.
 About 200 -500 hrs of operation are expected from a nozzle.
 The compact design of the water jet cutting head promotes
integration with motion control systems ranging from two-
axis (XY) tables to sophisticated multiaxis robotic installations.

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Jet Cutting Nozzle

Nozzle

Orifice

Waterjet
 6. Catcher
 Acts as a reservoir for collecting the machining debris
entrained in the water jet.
 Moreover, it reduces the noise levels [105 decibels (dB)]
associated with the reduction in the velocity of the water jet
from Mach 3 to subsonic levels.
 A tank in that tank with lot of water. So the abrasive water jet
interacts with that water and looses its energy but the water
tank is a very bulky thing.
 Use of steel tungsten carbide of ceramics balls. Water interact
with this ball and loose their unutilized energy or use of
plates it interacts with the plate and in the process looses its
energy but all this plates this balls should be wear resistant.
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 Types of Catcher
Components of AWJM
Catcher

(a) water basin (c) catcher plates (TiB2)

(b) steel/WC/ceramic balls

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WJM – Process Parameters

Factors affecting WJM performance 17

 WJM – Process Parameters – Contd.

Jet Nozzle
 Standoff distance - Gap between the
jet nozzle (0.1–0.3 mm diameter) and
the workpiece.
 Typical range - 2.5 – 6 mm.
 However for materials used in printed
circuit boards, it may be increased to
13 to 19 mm.
 But larger the standoff distance,
smaller would be the depth of cut.
 When cutting fiber-reinforced plastics,
reports showed that the increase in
machining rate and use of the small
nozzle diameter increased the width of
the damaged layer.

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 WJM – Process Parameters – Contd.
Jet Fluid
 Typical pressures used are 150 to 1000 MPa to provide 8 to 80 kW of power.
 Jet velocities range between 540 to 1400 m/s.

 The quality of cutting improves at higher pressures by widening the diameter of

the jet and by lowering the traverse speed.
 Under such conditions, materials of greater thicknesses and densities can be cut.
 Moreover, the larger the pump pressure, the greater will be the depth of the cut.
 The fluid used must possess low viscosity to minimize the energy losses and be
noncorrosive, nontoxic, common, and inexpensive.
 Water is commonly used for cutting alloy steels.
 Alcohol is used for cutting meat, while cooking oils are recommended for cutting
frozen foods. 19
 WJM – Process Parameters – Contd.

Workpiece
 Brittle materials will fracture, while ductile ones will cut well.
 Material thicknesses range from 0.8 to 25 mm or more.
 Table below shows the cutting rates for different material thicknesses

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Waterjet Applications

• Food

• Plastic

• Foam

• Paper

• Gaskets

• Rubber
 WJM – Applications
 WJM is used on metals, paper, cloth, leather, rubber, plastics, food, and ceramics.
 In general the cut surface has a sandblast appearance.
 Moreover, harder materials exhibit a better edge finish.
 Typical surface finishes ranges from 1.6 μm root mean square (RMS) to very
coarse depending on the application.
 Tolerances are in the range of  25 µm on thin material.
 Both the produced surface roughness and tolerance depend on the machining
speed.

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 WJM – Applications – Contd.
Cutting
 WJM is limited to fiberglass and corrugated wood.
 Typical example of water jet cutting of
Marble Tomatoes

Drilling
 The process drills precision-angled and -shaped holes in a variety of materials for
which other processes such as EDM or EBM are too expensive or too slow.

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 WJM – Applications – Contd.
Machining of fiber-reinforced plastics
 In this case the thermal material damage is negligible.
 The tool, being effectively pointed, accurately cuts any contours.
 The main drawback is the deflection of the water jet by the fiber embedded in the
matrix, which protrudes after machining.
 The feed rate attainable depends on the surface quality required.
 Table below gives the limiting feed rates for water jet cutting of fiber-reinforced
plastics.

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 WJM – Applications – Contd.
Cutting of rocks
 Water jet cutting of a 51 mm deep slot in granite using two oscillating jets at 275
MPa during 14 passes at a 25.4 mm/s feed rate has been reported by McGeough
(1988).
 Moreover an oscillating nozzle system operating at the same feed rate and pressure
of 172 MPa, with the standoff distance adjusted every pass was used to cut a 178
mm deep slot in sandstone.
Deburring
 The method uses large pressures to remove large burrs (3 mm height) in 12 mm
diameter drilled holes in a hollow molybdenum-chromium steel shaft at 15 s using
700 bar pressure and a flow rate of 27 L/min.
 In this method burrs are broken off by the impact of water.
 A higher pressure (4000 bar) and a lower flow rate (2.5 L/min) are used to remove
burrs from nonmetallic materials.

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 WJM – Applications – Contd.
Cutting of PCBs
 Using a small-diameter water jet, a printed circuit board (PCB) can be cut at a
speed that exceeds 8 m/min, to the accuracy of  0.13 mm.
 Boards of various shapes for use in portable radios and cassette players can be cut
using computer numerical control (CNC) technology.
Surface Treatment
 Removing deposits and residues without toxic chemicals, which eliminates costly
cleanup and disposal problems.
 Surface cleaning of pipes and castings, decorative finishing, nuclear
decontamination, food utensil cleaning, degreasing, polishing, preparation for
precise inspection, and surface texturing.
 Economical surface preparation and coating removal.
 Removing corrosion, spray residue, soluble salts, chemicals, and surface damage
prior to recoating or painting.
Wire Stripping
 Can remove the wire insulating material without damaging the metal or removing
the tinning on the copper wire.
 Processing time can be decreased to about 20 % of the manual stripping method.

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Stainless Steel
Mild Steel

Hardened Steel
 Alumunium
Copper
Titanium
Ceramic

Stone

Rubber

Wood
 WJM – Advantages
 No heat is produced.
 Cuts can be started at any location without the need for predrilled holes.
 There is no deflection to the rest of the workpiece.
 The burr produced is minimal.
 The process is environmentally safe.
 There is multiple head processing.
 Grinding and polishing are eliminated, reducing secondary operation
costs.
 The narrow kerf allows tight nesting when multiple parts are cut from a
single blank.
 It is ideal for roughing out material for near net shape.
 It cuts through very thick material such as 383 mm in titanium and 307
mm in Inconel.

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 WJM – Disadvantages
 Hourly rates are relatively high.
 It is not suitable for mass production because of high maintenance
requirements.

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Abrasive Waterjet
Machining
 Use of Abrasives for machining
process
AJM USM

• Carrier medium • Carrier Medium

(Air) (Water)
• Air driven abrasive • Liquid jet at ultra-
jet sonic frequency
• Low MRR • Low MRR
• Poor accuracy • Low efficiency
• Low efficiency

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Abrasive Water Jet Machining (AWJM)

• No dust
• High cutting speed
• No delamitation
• No thermal stresses
• No fire hazards
• Low level power requirement
• No striation marks
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Working principle
The cutter is commonly connected to
a high pressure water pump where
the water is then ejected from the
nozzle, cutting through the material
by spraying it with the jet of high
speed water. Additives in the form
of suspended grit or other
abrasives, such as garnet and
aluminum oxide can assist in this
process.
 Abrasive WJ Cutting
• A jet of water and stream of abrasives are mix up
and passed through nozzle.
• Water is used to transfer momentum to abrasives.
• High velocity abrasives with water strikes the
workpiece and impinges and removes material.
• Pressure- Water – 400 Mpa
• Jet speed – 900 m/s
• Upper most portion of kerf – erosive action
• Lower most portion of kerf – deformation wear
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 Abrasive WJ Cutting
• Used to cut much harder materials

• Water is not used directly to cut material as in Pure, instead

water is used to accelerate abrasive particles which do the
cutting
• 80-mesh garnet (sandpaper) is typically used though 50 and
120-mesh is also used
• Standoff distance between mixing tube and workpart is
typically 2-5 mm – important to keep to a minimum to keep a
good surface finish
 Elements of AWJM

Abrasive
Feed
System

AWJM Abrasive
Pumping
Water Jet
system
Nozzle

Catcher

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 Pumping system

• Produces high velocity water jet using

intensifier (415 Mpa)
• Use of 75 HP Motor to drive the pump
• Water flow requirement 3 gpm

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 Abrasive Feed system

• Delivers dry abrasive particles

• To control abrasive flow rate – use of
control orifice and suction pressure in
mixing tube
• Use of direct slurry can feed the abrasives
for longer distance but requires more power.

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 Single-jet side feed nozzle
This design is based on a central water jet
with abrasives fed into the mixing chamber
from the side.
•This configuration is easily machined and
can be made quite small, which is an
advantage when cutting in tight locations.
•But this concept does not provide for
optimal mixing efficiency and usually
experiences rapid wear of the exit section.
•The major advantage with this system is
this that, it incorporates a central,
conventional water jet, the abrasive flow
can be stopped and the system will function
as a conventional WJM system.
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Multiple jet

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 Abrasive Water Jet Nozzle
• Nozzle dia. – 75 to 635 µm
• Mixing of abrasives and water
and form high velocity jet
• Standard Tungsten Carbide
lasts 4-6 hours (not used
much anymore)
• Sapphire lasts 100-150 hours
• Consumables include water,
abrasive, orifice and mixing
tube
Abrasive Water Jet (AWJ)

High Pressure
Water
Abrasive

Jet
 Catcher

• Catcher is long narrow tube placed under

the point of cut to capture the used jet.
• If w/p is stationary and nozzle moves water
filled settling tank placed directly below
w/p.
• It is used to reduce pressure of jet.

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Abrasive jet cutting experimental setup
 Parametric Analysis

1 • Water Jet Pressure

2 • Water Flow rate
3 • Abrasive Flow Rate
4 • Abrasive Particle size
5 • No. of Passes

6 • Traverse Speed

7 • Stand-off Distance
 Effect of Water Jet Pressure
Increase in pressure increases
MRR and stabilize beyond
certain value of water jet
pressure

Some critical pressure is

required to start the cutting
action. Which depends on
work material.
Fig. Correlation between volume removal rate and
The value of Pc for mild steel hydraulic pressure: A1203, abrasive flow rate 100 g/min,
traverse speed 150 mm/min;
is between 20.7 and 27.5 Mpa
 Effect of Water Flow Rate
High abrasive flow rate as compared
to AJM. (0.1-5 kg/min)
Accelerate abrasives to high velocity
(over 300 m/s)
Water flow rate is proportional to
square root of pressure and square
diameter of nozzle.
Fig. Shows the depth of cut is affected
by varying the water flow rate (increasing
the nozzle diameter) while maintaining the
constant pressure.
•As the flow rate increases, the slope of the
curve decreases because the saturation point
is reached. As the nozzle diameter increases
and the water flow rate increases, the rate of
increase in the particle velocity is reduced,
thus reducing the depth of cut.
 Effect of Abrasive Flow Rate
 Abrasive flow rate and depth of
cut relationship is initially
linear. However, this linearity
terminates at higher abrasive
flow rates as particle velocity
will decrease more rapidly than
the number of impacts will
increase.

 This is because of the fact that,

as the abrasive flow rate
increases( with a fixed water
flow rate), particle velocity Fig. Effect of abrasive flow rate on depth of cut

begins to decrease faster than

the rate at which the number of
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abrasive particle impacts
 Effect of Abrasive Particle Size

The optimum range of particle

size depends on the other
parameters.
Additional data and research are
required to study in detail the
effect of abrasive particle size on
abrasive-jet cutting under
different conditions, and to
determine optimum abrasive
particle sizes for different sets of
Fig. Effect of garnet particle size in depth of cut
parameters.

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 Effect of No. of Passes
In general, the depth of cut increases
with the number of passes, as shown in
Fig. However, it is the rate of increase
that is the important issue.
The top curves of Fig. show that this
rate decreases or initially stays
constant with the number of passes, as
is always the case in any type of
waterjet cutting.
The jet "focusing” effect depends
strongly on nozzle design and traverse
rate and is more apparent with poorly
designed nozzles that permit excessive
jet spreading.

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 Effect of Traverse Speed

 The rate of kerf area generation

hu is plotted in the same figure,
which shows an optimum
cutting speed for maximum
kerf area rates.
 Cutting wear may occur more
often at low traverse rates and
deformation wear at high
traverse rates.
 The Fig. implies that the depth-
of-cut versus traverse-rate Fig. Effect of traverse rate on cutting results
curve is of a complex nature.
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 Effect of Stand-off Distance
 Stand off distance is generally one to two millimeter.
When standoff distance of 25 millimeter waste of energy
of the abrasive jet.
 Increase in SOD decreases depth of cut. As increase in
SOD, liquid jet breaks into droplets and free abrasive
particles which rebounds on impacts and causes
shallower depth of cut.
 Therefore, typically in the industry stand off distance of
one to two millimeter is used.
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Effect of Stand-off Distance

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 Advantages
• Cheaper than other processes.
• High cutting speed.
• Make all sorts of shapes with only
one tool.
• No heat generated.
• It does not produce dust or
particles.
• Clean cutting process without
This part is shaped with
gasses or oils. waterjet using one tool. Slots,
radii, holes, and profile in one
• Modern systems are now very easy 2 minute setup.

to learn.
• Are very safe.
• No need for resharpening tools.
 Disadvantages
• One of the main disadvantages of water jet cutting is that a limited
number of materials can be cut economically.
• It is possible to cut tool steels, and other hard materials, the cutting
rate has to be greatly reduced, and the time to cut a part can be very
long.
• Very thick parts can not be cut with water jet cutting and still hold
dimensional accuracy. If the part is too thick, the jet may dissipate
some, and cause it to cut on a diagonal, or to have a wider cut at the
bottom of the part than the top. It can also cause a rough wave
pattern on the cut surface.

Waterjet lag
 Process Capabilities
• AWJM can cut materials as thick as 200 mm and
still maintain a comparatively narrow kerf.
• Kerf width is a function of the material thickness
and usually is between 1.5 and 2.3 mm.
• The resulting taper on the cut edge is a function
of the material hardness,
• Where hard materials have the widest kerf at the
top of the cut and
• Soft materials have the widest kerf at the bottom
of the cut.
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 Applications
• Metal cutting
• De-burring
• Polishing
• Printed Circuit Boards
• Food Preparation
• Wood Cutting
• Cleaning Applications