CNC Machine Tool News, Specials and Events
This 4 x 4 water jet is equipped with a 55 k PSI intensifier. Small enough to fit in you shop yet big enough to do the job. A low cost waterjet with excellent service and support.
This is one of the smallest waterjet machines on the market.
Are you considering a used machine? With Section 179 tax Savings this machine only costs $32,338.00 or enough savings for 18 months of payments!
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New Product! An amazing quality low cost water jet cutting machine. |  |
| The 1006BA Water Jet 3 axis system includes the following: | |
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| The non-thermal cutting method allows users to cut everything from accurate prototypes to large nested programs for optimal production in virtually any material and a wide range of thicknesses. | |
 Intensifier Pump: KMT 50HP 50kpsi |
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| With our easy to use controller, software and precision cutting system nearly anyone can make accurate parts individually or nested. | |
 CNC Water Jet Control System |
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| Many small and large businesses benefit from our products and services and we will do everything we can ensure that your company will grow and succeed in the waterjet cutting industry like so many of our customers already have. | |
Through dedicated research and development, our waterjet cutting machines are playing an important role in processing metal, steel, titanium, marble, stone, granite, glass, ceramic, plastic and composite materials. With established reputation in quality, service, and unbeatable price, A&V products are enjoyed by our customers worldwide.
In this particular five-axis design, one CNC ultra-high pressure waterjet cutting head contains at least five axis (three linear coordinates and two rotating coordinates) with coordinated processing motion through CNC. Compared to an ordinary waterjet cutting machine, the biggest advantage of a five-axis waterjet design is that the cutting head can rotate in any direction, which can produce a pre-set cut bevel at any angle. According to material type and its thickness, different angle settings can be controlled through computer software, which gives you the ability to have no tapper on your finished cut edge.
The JETLINE high pressure pump combines all the advantages of KMT Waterjet Systems for waterjet cutting applications. For decades, KMT high-pressure technology has set the standard in this field, offering unrivalled efficiency, high continuous load capability and availability.
The CNC five axis ultra high-pressure water jet cutting machine(KMT intensifier) innovatively adapted the five axis control software in traditional high-pressure water jet control system.
The machine body and supporting table (water tank) have a separate structure. This design eliminates any negative impact to cutting accuracy as a result of any change in the supporting table. This highly stable structure is easy to be locally updated and maintained.
The two types of waterjets are the pure waterjet and the abrasive waterjet. Both have unique capabilities proven a benefit to industry.
Pure Waterjet
Pure waterjet is the original water cutting method. The first commercial applications were in the early to mid 1970s, and involved the cutting of corrugated cardboard. The largest uses for pure waterjet cutting are disposable diapers, tissue paper, and automotive interiors. In the cases of tissue paper and disposable diapers the waterjet process creates less moisture on the material than touching or breathing on it. Unplanned down time, common to other cutting processes, cost over $20,000 per hour (US dollar) in some diaper or tissue plants. The waterjet provides the 24 hour per day, 7 day per week, 360 day per year operation required by such applications – maintenance can be scheduled into production.
Pure waterjet attributes:
VERY THIN STREAM (0.004 TO 0.010 INCH IN DIAMETER IS THE COMMON RANGE)
EXTREMELY DETAILED GEOMOETRY
VERY LITLE MATERIAL LOSS DUE TO CUTTING
NON-HEAT CUTTING
CUT VERY THICK
CUT VERY THIN
USUALLY CUTS VERY QUICKLY
ABLE TO CUT SOFT, LIGHT MATERIALS (E.G., FIBERGLASS INSULATION UP TO 24”
THICK)
EXTREMELY LOW CUTTING FORCES
SIMPLE FIXTURING
24 HOUR PER DAY OPERATION
Pure Waterjet Cutting Heads
As you may recall from an earlier section of this document, the basic waterjet process involves water flowing from a pump, through plumbing, and out a cutting head.
In waterjet cutting, the material removal process can be described as a supersonic erosion process. It is not pressure, but stream velocity that tears away microscopic pieces or grains of material. Pressure and velocity are two distinct forms of energy. But how is the pump’s water pressure converted to this other form of energy, water velocity? The answer lies in a tiny jewel. A jewel is affixed to the end of the plumbing tubing. The jewel has a tiny hole in it. The pressurized water passes through this tiny opening changing the pressure to velocity. At approximately
40,000 psi the resulting stream that passes out of the orifice is traveling at Mach 2. And at 60,000 psi the speed is over Mach 3.
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Question: How hot is the water in a Mach 3 waterjet stream?
Answer: The water is warmed as it is accelerated to high speed. Frictional forces and other
factors warm the stream as it exits the orifice. In let water temperature provides the starting point.
Water temperature is then raised 2 to 3 degrees for each 1,000 psi. The quick answer is the
Mach 3 jet is approximately 170 to 180 degrees F.
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Pure waterjet orifice diameter ranges from 0.004 to 0.010 inch for typical cutting. When waterblasting concrete with a nozzle traversing back and forth on a tractor, a single large orifice of up to 1/10th of an inch is often used.
The three common types of orifice materials (sapphire, ruby, diamond) each have their own unique attributes. Sapphire is the most common orifice material used today. It is a man-made, single crystal jewel. It has a fairly good quality stream, and has a life, with good water quality, of approximately 50 to 100 cutting hours. In abrasive waterjet applications the sapphire’s life is ½ that of pure waterjet applications.
Ruby can also be used in abrasive waterjet applications. The stream characteristics are well suited for abrasivejet, but are not well suited for pure waterjet cutting. The cost is approximately the same as the sapphire.
Diamond has considerably longer run life (800 to 2,000 hours) but is 10 to 20 times more costly.
Diamond is especially useful where 24 hour per day operation is required. Diamonds, unlike the other orifice types, can sometimes be ultrasonically cleaned and reused.
Abrasive Waterjets
The abrasive waterjet differs from the pure waterjet in just a few ways. In pure waterjet, the supersonic stream erodes the material. In the abrasive waterjet, the waterjet stream accelerates abrasive particles and those particles, not the water, erode the material. The abrasive waterjet is hundreds, if not thousands of times more powerful than a pure Waterjet. Both the waterjet and the abrasive waterjet have their place. Where the pure waterjet cuts soft materials, the abrasive waterjet cuts hard materials, such as metals, stone, composites and ceramics. Abrasive waterjets using standard parameters can cut materials with hardness up to and slightly beyond aluminum oxide ceramic (often called Alumina, AD 99.9). In the next section we will explore abrasive waterjet attributes and how the abrasive waterjet cutting head works.
Abrasive Waterjet attributes:
EXTREMELY VERSATILE PROCESS
NO HEAT AFFECTED ZONES
NO MECHANICAL STRESSES
EASY TO PROGRAM
THIN STREAM (0.020TO 0.050 INCH IN DIAMETER)
EXTREMELY DETAILED GEOMETRY
THIN MATERIAL CUTTING
10 INCH THICK CUTTING
STACK CUTTING
LITTLE MATERIAL LOSS DUE TO CUTTING
SIMPLE TO FIXTURE
LOW CUTTING FORCES (UNDER 1 LB. WHILE CUTTING)
ONE JET SETUP FOR NEARLY ALL ABRASIVEJET JOBS
EASILY SWITCHED FROM SINGLE TO MULTI-HEAD USE
QUICKLY SWITCH FROM PURE WATERJET TO ABRASVIE WATERJET
REDUCED SECONDARY OPERATIONS
LITTLE OR NO BURR
Abrasive Waterjet Cutting Heads
Within every abrasive waterjet is a pure waterjet. abrasive is added after the pure Waterjet stream is created. Then the abrasive particles are accelerated, like a bullet in a rifle, down the mixing tube.
The abrasive used in abrasive waterjet cutting is hard sand that is specially screened and sized.
The most common abrasive is garnet. Garnet is hard, tough and inexpensive. Like the pink colored sandpaper found at the hardware store, different mesh sizes are used for different jobs.
120 Mesh – produces smooth surface
80 Mesh – most common, general purpose
50 Mesh – cuts a little faster than 80, with slightly rougher surface.
The mixing tube acts like a rifle barrel to accelerate the abrasive particles. They, like the orifice, come in many different sizes and replacement life. Mixing tubes are approximately 3 inches long,
¼ inch in diameter, and have internal diameters ranging from 0.020 to 0.060 inch, with the most common being 0.040 inch.
Although the abrasive waterjet machine typically is considered simple to operate and ‘bullet proof,’ the mixing tube does require operator attention. A major technological advancement in Waterjet was the invention of truly long-life mixing tubes. Unfortunately, the longer life tubes are far more brittle than their predecessors, tungsten carbide tubes. If the cutting head comes in contact with clamps, weights, or the target material the tube may be broken. Broken tubes cannot be repaired. Today’s most advanced systems incorporate collision detection to spare the mixing tube.
The standoff distance between the mixing tube and the target material is typically 0.010 to 0.150 inch. Larger standoff (greater than 0.080 inch) can cause a frosting to appear atop the cut edge of the part. Many Waterjet systems reduce or eliminate this frosting by cutting under water or using other techniques.
The consumable items in an abrasive Waterjet are the water, abrasive, orifice (usually Ruby) and mixing tube. The abrasive and mixing tube are exclusive to the abrasive waterjet. The other consumables are also found in the pure waterjet.
The main benefit of a four-axis cutting head is to compensate taper, and to make the finished edge completely vertical through the fourth axis – a rotational axis. The four-axis cutting head actually has the structure of a five axis, which purposely has one axis under manual control b the angle axis. Together with the original three-axis (X Y Z), we label them as a four-axis cutting head. Since it has the fifth angle axis under manual control, it can also perform cutting with the entire five axis.
This specially engineered cutting head has performed remarkably in many cutting fields in reducing the processing cost due to increased operating efficiency.
Compared with our five-axis cutting head design, it has a maximum limit of a 4 degree angle with a rotational accuracy of 0.01 degrees.
For taper compensation, the distance between the cutting head and the surface of the work piece must be maintained with high accuracy. The height positioning accuracy of the four-axis is 0.01mm and the cutting accuracy is 0.1mm, which can easily meet various cutting requirements.
In the marble matching process, waterjet cutting with a four-axis cutting head design is simply amazing. When the angle of the cutting head reaches 4 degrees, the finished edge shows tremendous improvement. As can be seen from this picture, there is no gap between the two joined surface. Hence, a secondary polishing procedure is no longer required. Thereby, it increases working efficiency and reduces the production cost.
With this improved four-axis dynamic cutting head design, it is no longer a difficult technique in marble matching. It made traditionally complex marble matching an easy job.
The same methodology is also applicable in glass straight-hole drilling. As an example, when piercing holes in glass, it is not necessary to decrease the cutting speed in order to get straight holes. The ideal effect can be achieved without changing cutting speed, and that is highly beneficial!
Punch presses are used when processes require hole to be punched in material. From small and manual to large, complex CNC machines, punch presses vary depending on the scale of the operation. Most punch presses have either a portal (bridge) frame or a “C” type frame. The following are some of the criteria used to determine what type of punch press you need:
Size of work area
Drive type
Force rating
Weight of the workpiece
Drive Type
The drive type is the system used to deliver force to the ram. There are several different types used for different purposes.
Flywheel
A flywheel is a constantly rotating machine. With flywheel, adjusting the speed during the process is difficult. With the advent of newer systems, these types of presses are no longer common.
Mechanical
There are two types of mechanical punches: full revolution and part revolution. The full revolution requires the crankshaft to rotate a full turn before coming to a stop. The full turn is necessary because specific slots must catch raised keys in order to stop the rotation. More advanced machines use a part revolution which works with a braking system.
Hydraulic
These presses use a hydraulic cylinder are can be controlled by a valve or by a valve and feedback system. Valve controlled hydraulic presses let the ram stroke up and down in a one-stroke operation. The valve and feedback system offers control proportionally so the stroke can be set to fixed points. This system provides more flexibility and increases punching rates.
Servo drive turret
This type of punch press uses twin AC servo drives connected to the drive shaft. This system is effective because it has the speed of hydraulic systems as well as the control provided with clutches and brakes. Although this type of punch matches the speed of hydraulic systems, it has no hydraulic parts which means it needs less maintenance. Servo drives also reuse the energy that gets generated during deceleration. This lessens the amount of power needed to run the machine.
The brake press, also known as press brakes are very useful shaping sheet metal. Typically they work with a table below which holds the die and a moveable beam above where the punch is located. There are several types of brake presses available and they are described by the types of force applied in the process.
Mechanical Press – A clutch is used along with a flywheel to operate a crank. Mechanical presses are known for their speed and accuracy.
Hydraulic Press – Uses two hydraulic cylinders located on the sides of the press. They move the upper beam.
Servo-electric Press – Exerts force by driving a belt drive or ballscrew with a servo-motor (a motor with encoders to provide accurate positioning and speed).
Pneumatic Press – Uses air pressure to provide force.
Applications
Mechanical presses have long been the dominant type in the world of machining. But since the 1950s, hydraulic presses have become the most popular as a result of advances in hydraulic and computer technologies. Now, hydraulic presses are known to be very reliable and accurate. They are also considered a safe option because the ram’s motion can be stopped much easier than that of flywheel-driven mechanical presses. Servo-electric and pneumatic presses are ideal for processes requiring lower amounts of force (tonnage).
Water jets are great for processing metals for food-related uses. But what about food itself? Paprima’s Ultra-High Pressure water jet is a great method for cutting food for several reasons. Water jets are much more hygenic than traditional methods because they don’t involve blades which have been known to transfer bacteria and pathogens onto food products. And this particular water jet uses a continuous stream of drinking water rather than mixing water with an abrasive. The UHP water jet has an opening of about .004″ which is small enough to cut delicate foods producing a clean cut with no bruising.
The nozzle on the UHP moves water at 3 times the speed of sound providing extreme cutting power. The diamond nozzle should be able to last approximately 3 months being used continuously.
Milling is basically the process of removing material. It began centuries ago as a way to process grains using stones.
Eventually, it also came to include metal processing with rotating cutting tools. As milling evolved, the array of tools that could be employed increased greatly as did the precision. Choosing the right tool and the proper machining parameters in milling is essential to achieve an optimum outcome.
Types of Milling
Face Milling – Used for making flat surfaces. The cutters usually have a single row of inserts. The tools used for face milling will preferably have a lead angle for long tool life.
Slot Milling – Used to produce slot and channels. Mainly, slot milling is done with either a disk mill or an end mill. Disk mills are usually used for operations that are perpendicular to the spindle rotation. Types of disk mills are high-speed steel, brazed carbide, and indexable-insert-based. These will be used for operations perpendicular to the spindle rotation. End mills are used when the slot needed must be parallel to the spindle rotation and often result in poorer quality due to poor chip formation and other factors. End mills have a smaller tool diameter and greater length which causes them to be less stable than all other milling cutters.
Periphery Milling – Creates a primary surface that is parallel to the spindle rotation. Often times, there is also a secondary surface generated. Types of periphery milling cutters include: solid carbide, high-speed steel, and indexable-insert-based.
Specialty Applications
There are additional types of milling that can be used for specific jobs. Here are a couple:
Ramping – Used for making angled surfaces or for making a pocket at the point of entry.
Helical and Circular Interpolation – Used to create a cylindrical surface or to make entry points that can be used later.
When fabricating metal products, waterjets offer many advantages over other cutting machines. One benefit is their ability to make precise cuts without heat. When cutting machines expel heat during the cutting process, the chance of altering or damaging the material’s intrinsic properties increases. With waterjets, heat-sensitive materials can be processed without worrying about incidental damage.
Another benefit of waterjets is their capability of cutting complex and intricate designs. The width of the cut can easily be altered by adjusting the type/size of abrasive used as well as the nozzle. This allows the machinist to make very detailed cuts with an accuracy of about 0.13mm.
Waterjet cutting complex pattern
Also beneficial is the efficiency of waterjets. They maximize efficiency in a number of ways. Considered a “green” technology”, waterjets do not create any hazardous waste. Additionally, they can save more material than other, less precise cutting methods because they are so precise. This allows them to cut only what is needed, keeping the width to a minimum. They are also efficient because they don’t need much water to operate. And the water used can be recycled with a closed-looped system. The garnet abrasive used is non-toxic and can also be recycled.
Another advantage is the lack of airborne chemicals that are common to other cutting methods. With waterjets, there are no fumes or contaminants from cutting potentially hazardous materials such as fiberglass.
