Q. You mentioned stacking of materials, what’s that? And what’s ‘nesting’?
A. Stacking is the method of stacking multiple sheets of material to cut many parts at once, our software automatically calculates the optimum stack height to produce the most economical cut time for the material used.
Nesting is the process our software uses to get the maximum number of parts from a give piece of material, as there is no heat of distortion in the cutting process, parts can be fitted very close together.
Q. What if I want to supply my own material, is this a problem?
A. Not at all, at Accujet we are happy to use your supplied material. You may wish to do this to retain quality control over the material or simply because you have a piece lying around, either way it’s no problem at all.
Q. I often need parts supplying quickly, is this possible?
A. It certainly is! We are often asked to supply parts on a same or next day basis, having a background in reactive engineering, we understand that sometimes you need that part yesterday! The only restriction is sometimes the supply of the material, waterjets can cut a vast variety of materials so we can’t keep everything in stock, but if we don’t have it we will get it as soon as possible.
Q. What is the maximum thickness you can cut?
A. It is not unheard of for waterjets to cut material up to 250mm thick; however this may or may not be the most cost efficient way of machining your part. Either way we’ll be happy to advise.
Q. What about hard materials like hardened steels and ceramics?
A. No problem, these are ideal waterjet territory.
Q. You say you have a Tilt-a-Jet, what’s that?
A. The Tilt-a-Jet is a dynamic cutting head designed to remove taper from the edge of waterjet cut parts. Although not a true 5 axis system it can be used to deliberately add taper of +/- 9 degrees to some or all of your part. Very useful for mould separation or cutting edges.
Q. I heard waterjets are slow and inaccurate
A. Some are! But not all waterjets are the same, just as you wouldn’t compare lap times between a Ferrari and a tractor, you can’t compare our high precision Omax waterjet machines with some of the other systems available. Some waterjets are only accurate to +/-0.25mm at best; we can cut to +/-0.05mm (dependant on application) and are certainly competitive with lasers, plasma and EDM.
Q. I’m not a CAD user, can I still get my parts cut?
A. Yes, we can take anything from an idea to a sketch and generate a toolpath. If your parts are artistic or decorative we can scan your own drawing directly and scale it to the size you want, or for engineering applications we are happy to draw the part for you. For reverse engineering applications we can scan or draw your actual part, we can even generate a toolpath from a photo.
Q. But I only want a couple of profiles for a hobby application, can you help?
A. Yes of course, as the waterjet has no tooling and minimal set up time short batches and one offs are really no problem, whether it’s a hobby, art, architectural or industrial we are happy to help.
Q. Do you have to cut all the way through the material?
A. No, although the waterjet process is primarily a profiling operation and cannot ‘pocket’ in the way a CNC mill can, our software allows us to etch and scribe without going all the way through, handy for part numbers and marking out lines
Q. Ok. I’m convinced, but what can’t you cut?
A. Diamonds! Actually the waterjet has very few problem materials, although tempered glass doesn’t cut well as it is designed to shatter when pierced, but glass can always be cut then tempered afterwards. If you request a material that may present a problem we will cut a test piece and report back to you. |
