What is Water Jet Cutting?

A waterjet table hard at work.

“Water jet.” You might have heard the term, but you may not know what it entails.

Water is one of nature’s most powerful forces. Think about how it feels to get carried under the waves at the beach or to get sprayed by a traditional garden hose, or consider the damage floods can do. It has the power to wash away rocks, and to erode the sides of mountains.

Back to that garden hose: think about the pressure it contains. Now, imagine if it was pushed through a much smaller hole, at a much higher pressure. Mix in an abrasive element, like garnet, and you have a tool that can cut through a wide variety of substances. The waterjet cutters at H&H Precision Wire are able to cut through a wide variety of substances, like cardboard and rubber, to aluminum and titanium.

Erosion is from which the idea of water jet cutting comes. The early seeds of this form of precision cutting were planted in the 1800s, when hydraulic coal mining became popular in areas like New Zealand and Soviet Union. Miners used water from streams, and blasted it over a rock face, which would carry away loose coal and rock.

By the California Gold Rush (1853 to 1886), pressurized water was used to excavate from mines soft gold rock, the first time such a feat was attempted. Another reason this was notable is because this allowed the miner to stand back from the face being washed, meaning less danger. In the 1930s, the Russians first attempted cutting rock with pressurized

The waterjet cutting technology as its known today was first developed in the 1970s, with the first industrial cutter installed in 1972. The industry took off, with water jet cutting becoming one of the most preferred forms of precision cutting. Water jet cutting is used today in a variety of applications, from cutting disposable diapers to tools for space exploration.