Posted to News on 19th Jun 2007, 20:41
James Walker offers water jet cutting service
James Walker has introduced a new enhanced high-speed abrasive waterjet cutting service following the installation of a Calypso water jet cutting system at its Cockermouth Custom Gasket plant. The system offers highly accurate, cold, burr-free cutting of virtually any material from thin sheet to 100mm thickness
The service promises rapid response for profile-cut customised parts in any quantity thanks to the new system's ultra-fast cutting speeds and high productivity combined with exceptional versatility. It is suitable for prototyping, as there are no tooling charges, while intricate cutting precision also enables patterns to be nested to maximise material utilisation.
Cutting is non-invasive, as no heat or work-induced stress is incurred, and the excellent edge quality eliminates the need for secondary finishing. The system's advanced CADCAM control is fully compatible with all major CAD languages and will work directly from customers' own design files.
Material types
Metals that can be cut with highly accurate tolerances include aluminium, brass, copper, carbon/alloy/stainless steels, titanium and specialist alloys. Other materials handled range from foam and sponge to carbon fibre composites, laminates, graphite and rubber as well as marble, granite and armour plate.
Water pressurised to over 4000bar (60,000psi) with the option to mix in crushed garnet abrasive removes a narrow section completely through the material. Cutting area is 3 x 2m with +/-0.2mm tolerance - and the absence of slag, thermal deformation or heat affected zones is said to be vital for modern highly stressed components.
