Metals – Steel, stainless steel, Hastelloy, Hardox and Titanium

Abrasive waterjets are ideally suited for tough and lucrative applications for any metal cutting. More than just common materials of mild steel and aluminum. Abrasive waterjets also easily cut titanium, Inconel®, brass, and tool steel. Whether you’re cutting 300 mm thick titanium or 10 mm aluminum, you’ll discover waterjet technology is versatile enough to cut a variety of shapes and metals.

Key Benefits to Cutting Metals with Waterjet

• Increased productivity, fast cutting and high-quality parts
• No worrying smoke or vapours given off
• Every alloy can be cut
• Minimal kerf allows incredible detail
• Inconsistent material is not a problem (no need for expensive ‘laser ready’ material)
• Raw material savings — reduced scrap
• No need for extensive part clamping, minimal lateral or vertical forces
• Single-pass cutting, depending on material thickness
• No heat-affected zones
• No hardening of the material at the edge of the cut
• Net or near-net cutting, little or no hand finishing. Waterjet cutting is suitable for cutting metals that may be adversely affected by heat. This is particularly important in the aerospace and vehicle industries.
• Basically, waterjets can process greater metal thicknesses than lasers can, and they can cut more precisely than either plasma or flame jet procedures.

This cold-cutting process is also ideal in the manufacture of miniaturized components, thanks to the fine or micro waterjet technology now available. The need for delicate, highly functional workpieces can be met by a positioning accuracy of 0.0025 mm, right down to the tolerance range of +/- 0.01 mm.

Common applications:

• Aerospace industry
• Alloys of titanium, aluminum, and Cr-Ni-Co-based alloys, as well as composite materials, as used in airplane and jet engine construction.
• Mechanical engineering and plant engineering
• Gears, castings, assemblies made of stainless steel, copper, aluminum, titanium and stainless metals.
• Tool-making
• Dies, tool parts made of mild steel and tool steel
• Precision engineering, medical technology
• Components for clocks and watches, jewelry, implants, and appliance parts
• Materials research
• Material samples without any structural changes, conventional alloys that are difficult to machine, and new materials
• Steel construction
• Stair elements, building railings and interior constructions
• Motorsport
• Suspension parts, trim parts, economical single-part production, rapid alterations, in high-tech materials too