Waterjet Sweden, in partnership with Swedish firm Finecut AB, has launched a new series of waterjet machining centres for what the company calls “ultra high precision” production of small and miniature components.

Capabilities include, by way of example, a reduction in kerf width from the industry normal minimum of 0.5 mm to 0.3 mm on the currently released models and a potential 0.2 mm pending ongoing trials in customer service centres. As a general rule operations can be classified as follows:

Abrasive Waterjets (AWJs)    Cutting jet diameters larger than 300 microns, abrasive carried in air and entrained into a high velocity waterjet.Fine Abrasive Waterjet (FAWs)    Cutting jet diameters between 50 and 300 microns, abrasive carried in water or air and entrained into a high velocity waterjet,

The machine is a totally encased stand-alone unit, complete with a dedicated CNC operating panel and display screen. Opening the loading doors reveals a worktable and a high-precision motion system, featuring linear motors above a catcher tank that is fully suspended to avoid vibration. The whole unit is mounted on a rigid machine tool type frame that is easily put into place, has a much smaller footprint than is normally associated with waterjet machines and yet contains its own fully-integrated sub-systems.

It features a feed rate of 20 m/min and double that in fast feed mode. The high precision claim is backed by its ability to achieve a positioning accuracy of  ±0,01 mm/300 mm (20°).

www.waterjet.se