Waterjet cutting

High-pressure water being forced through a small orifice/jewel to concentrate an extreme amount of energy in a small area. The restriction of the tiny orifice creates high pressure and a high-velocity beam, much like putting your finger over the end of a garden hose.

Pure waterjets use the beam of water exiting the orifice to cut soft material, but are not effective for cutting harder materials.

The inlet water for a pure waterjet is pressurized between 20,000 and 60,000 (PSI) (1300 to 6200 bar). This is forced through a tiny hole in the orifice/jewel, which is typically (0.18 to 0.4 mm). This creates a very high-velocity, very thin beam of water traveling as close to the speed of sound (about 600 mph or 960 km/hr).

An abrasivejet starts out the same as a pure waterjet. As the thin stream of water leaves the jewel, however, abrasive is added to the the stream and mixed. The high-velocity water exiting the jewel creates a vacuum which pulls abrasive from the abrasive line, which then mixes with the water in the mixing tube. The beam of water accelerates abrasive particles to speeds fast enough to cut through much harder materials.

The cutting action of an abrasivejet is two-fold. The force of the water and abrasive erodes the material, even if the jet is stationary. The cutting action is greatly enhanced if the abrasivejet stream is moved across the material.