Installation (machine) Waterjet Cutting is usually composed of the following sites:
- station (pump) pressure;
- cutting head (two or more cutting heads);
- high pressure pipelines;
- coordinate table with bath and drives the cutting head moves;
- abrasive feed system;
- retention tank;
- control system.
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| Installation of water-jet cutting |
With the
high pressure pump the water is compressed to the required pressure and then fed into the cutting head through mains.
cutting head allows the conversion of water power, compressed under high pressure into kinetic energy of high-vodnoabrazivnoy jet and its final shape as a cutting tool.
Abrasive metering system consists of an abrasive hopper pressure metering device and the supply of abrasive cutting head equipped with minibunkerom, as well as flexible connecting hoses.
Coordinate table (with the displacement actuators) is designed to accommodate workpieces and positioning of the cutting head, and
a bath - for receiving vodnoabrazivnoy jets and waste treatment. In the apparatus for cutting complex parts cutting head can be moved on a 5-axes: the axes of the standard X (front to back), Y (left-right), Z (up-down), as well as the axes of A (change of angle) and C (rotation around the axis Z).
The water is drained from the bath coordinate table, goes to the retention tank , where cleaned of sludge - used abrasive and small remnants of the material.
Managing the process cutting is usually done with a personal computer (PC).
High Pressure Pumps
Pumping water in the ultra-high pressure pump is due to the reciprocating movements of the plunger - the displacer elongated cylindrical shape. The plunger is pushed into a closed chamber of the cylinder to increase pressure, which leads to compression of the water. Upon reaching the required pressure opens the valve off a one-way, and part of the compressed fluid is ejected. Then, the output valve closes and the plunger begins to move in the opposite direction under the pressure of the expanding water. In this case the water pressure decreases to the level of pressure at the inlet, and a one-way inlet valve opens.
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High Pressure Pumps |
Depending on how you drive the plunger are two types of ultra-high pressure pumps:
- direct action and
- multiplier ("enhancer") of the type - they are also called booster.
Direct action pumps have a simple design.
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| The use of direct-acting pump is installed in the waterjet cutting |
The charge pump generates a preliminary low water pressure. Then the water is treated and enters the high pressure pump. The motor drives the three piston alternately expelling water from the cylinders.
The pumps are direct-acting relatively cheap, can gradually increase the pressure and have a very high efficiency - up to 95% and above. However, the water pressure created by these pumps is typically less than 3800 atm.
The higher the water pressure (up to 4150 or 6000 bar) are able to create
multiplier pumps (booster) type.
The piston is driven in one direction or the other side of the oil, served by the primary pressure (usually about 207 atmospheres), which creates a hydraulic pump. The area of each of the bases of the piston can be 20 times larger than that of the working surface of each of the plungers. As a result, the water pressure, propelling plungers alternately from the chambers of both cylinders is 20 times higher than the initial oil pressure. While the water is ejected from a high-pressure chamber, in the opposite chamber enters the water at low pressure, etc.
Attenuator (battery) smooths the ripple of water pressure and ensures a continuous flow to the cutting process.
Pumps multiplier type structurally more complex and require cooling.
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| The pump Jet Edge iP60-100 with two multipliers (left) and a system of two pumps OMAX P4055V direct action (right) used in waterjet cutting machines |
Additional devices
Water treatment system. Designed primarily for water softening and removal of undesirable impurities (containing iron, silicon, manganese, etc.) that reduce the life of the water nozzle and high pressure seals. In addition, can provide a backup supply of water required temperature and pressure of water supplied to the high pressure pump, and can also be used to cool the pump multiplier.
The system of protection against collisions. It is used to exclude the possibility of collision with the workpiece cutting head for the surface roughness. The mixing tube is fenced protective ring connected to the sensor stroke. For fixed collision movement of the cutter stops, and it retains its functionality after the removal of obstacles.
In a controlled Z-axis can be used
control the height of the cutting head, allows you to keep a very close distance between the cutting head and the workpiece surface, which greatly improves the speed and accuracy.
Optical Locator. It consists of a miniature waterproof camera that can accurately determine the coordinates of any point on the surface of the workpiece, and the program to convert the coordinates of points after reinstalling or moving the product. As a result, the system records the details of the location in memory and allows you to continue to cut on the same circuit as the workpiece move in an arbitrary manner with dimensions much greater than the size of the coordinate table and temporarily delayed harvesting.
The control system the water level in the bath. It is intended to raise the water level during the cutting and sinking to the initial level at the end of the treatment process. This significantly reduces noise, spray jets and cutting emissions to the air abrasive dust. For effective cutting of the water layer over the workpiece must be very thin. Thus, at a thickness of 1 mm layer of harboring jet power has been declining by about 5%.
It is also possible to use sludge system, a laser pointer for positioning the cutter system of remote monitoring of the installation, drilling heads, and other optional components.
Expendable materials
The table below shows the average value of the resource supplies the cutting steel plants BarsJet (development - NGO "BARS", the production - of "Delta-Intech", Chelyabinsk region, pos. Kazantsev). Actual values depend on the modes of operation of the machine, especially on the working pressure of the pump. Thus, the processing of glass service life will be greater than in the processing of steel or titanium.
TABLE. The mean values of resource supplies obtained from the statistics of the plants BarsJet (multiplier with a pump-type cutting head and the Thueringer Thueringer) for waterjet cutting steel (data from the company "TehnoAlyansGrupp", Moscow)
| Components | The average value of resource use (hours) |
| Water Nozzle | 60 |
| Mixing tube | 80 |
| Grill on the coordinate table | 150 |
| Seal kit for the multiplier | 200 |
| Grease bottom brackets | 200 |
| Tube feeding abrasive material | 250 |
| Valve "a fungus" (minibunker) | 250 |
| Water filter element to the cutting head | 300 |
| Assembling the valve inlet and outlet multiplier | 500 |
| Set of seals for the hydraulic part of the multiplier | 500 |
| Seal kit for the relief valve | 500 |
| Set of seals for the cutting head | 500 |
| The mixing chamber (cutting head) | 600 |
| Hydraulic fluid (oil) British Petroleum Energol HLP-HM 46, 208 L | 2000 |
| Water filter elements (1, 5 and 20 microns) | the extent of pollution |
| Granulated salt for water softening system | as spending |
| Grease Turmopast | as spending |
| Abrasive Sand | the extent of spending (the most expensive) |
The equipment for waterjet cutting
Waterjets produce company Flow (U.S.), OMAX (U.S.), Jet Edge (U.S.), PTV (Czech Republic), Water Jet Sweden (Sweden), Resato (The Netherlands), Bystronic (Switzerland), Caretta Technology (Italy), ALICO (Finland), etc. Among the well-known manufacturers of components for machine tools: the company KMT, AccuStream (U.S. - ultra-high pressure pumps, cutting heads, abrasive feeder, etc.) as well as UHDE (Germany), Thueringer (Germany) BHDT (Austria) and others
In Russia, the waterjets from our own and foreign manufactures components of "Delta-Intech" (development - NGO "BARS").
TABLE. Information about the plants and waterjet cutting machines
| Name | High Pressure Pumps |
| Portal-type Flow WMC2 with modifications (USA) | Flow HyPlex direct action, and a booster-type Flow Series 20x, 25x, HyperJet and others depending on the choice of installing or |
| Portal-type console Flow IFB2 with modifications (USA) |
| OMAX JetMaching Center 2626, 2626 | xp, 2652, 5555, 55100, 60120, 80160, Series 80X and 120X (USA) | Direct action OMAX P3050V, P3055V, P4055V, P4055V Dual (a system of two pumps) depending on the machine |
| Maxiem 0707, 1515, 1530, 2030, 2040 (brand from the company OMAX, USA) | Direct action (3450 bar) |
| PTV with the models of series D, New Line, Smart Jet, Dynamite, Free Beam (Czech Republic) | Booster PTV JETS - 2.2/60, 3.8/60 Compact, 3.8/60 Classic, 7.5/60c depending on the setting |
| Water Jet Sweden NC1000, NC2515S, NC3015CT, NC3015EB, NC3030T, NC4020E, NC3520S-5x, NC3515D-5x, NC4060Q, NC4492D, NC40180T and others (Sweden) | Booster KMT StreamLine (USA) of various modifications |
| Caretta Technology POSEIDON WATERJET, MODULA series with various modifications, and others (Italy) | Booster KMT StreamLine SL-V series and Pro (U.S.) depending on the machine |
| Resato R-LCM 1515-1 (1500 x 1500 mm, a cutting head), 2010-1, 2015-1, 2020-1/2, 3015-1/2/3, 3030-1/2/3, 3060 - 1/2/3, etc. (The Netherlands) | Booster Resato Powerjet PJE with various modifications (pressure up to 4000 bar) and Ultrajet (up to 6000 bar), depending on the installation |
| BarsJet 1510-3.1.1, 2010-3.1.1, 2015-3.1.1, 2515-3.1.1, 3020-3.1.1, 2040-3.1.1, 2060-3.1.1 (Russia) | Booster BarsPump-4000 (Russia) or the production of Resato (The Netherlands), UHDE, Thueringer (Germany), BHDT (Austria) and others |
See also:
technology of waterjet cutting
laser cutting equipment
laser cutting
