Water jet cutting
Water jet is the method consisting of cutting the material (or a water jet can relate to cleaning it) by the use of thin
water jets under high pressure with added abrasive slurry used to cut the target material by means of erosion. [22]
The technique with using high pressure water for cutting materials was first time patented in 1968 by researcher in
USA, but fast development of water jet cut method was starting in early ‘80s. [18] Today is a rapidly developing
technology, that is used in industry for processing variety of engineering materials. It is an emerging technology,
which has many advantages over the other non-conventional cutting technics. [20] Often, in order to improve the
performance of the process additive is used in the form of abrasive grains of garnet, which allows cutting of very
hard materials. The correct name of this technology is so cutting hydro-abrasive treatment (abrasive water jet). The
figure 1(a) shows the abrasive water jet cutting system.
Cutting process can be described briefly as follows. The water fed by a pump under pressure, after passing
through the water causes the suction nozzle to the abrasive mixing chamber. Then a mixture of water and abrasive is
directed to the mixing nozzle in order to form and stabilize. [15] The result is a stream of hydro-abrasive, which has
enough power to cut through even the toughest materials.
Water jet we can applied in many areas of modern industry, such as automotive industry, aerospace industry,
construction engineering, environmental technology, chemical process engineering, and industrial maintenance. [1]
Typical water jet cutting machines have a working space from few square feet to hundreds of square feet. In this
moment the high pressure water pumps are available from 276 MPa up to 689 MPa. [2]