Everyone at Jantz was excited yesterday to see the arrival of our new Flow waterjet cutter. A waterjet cutter slices through a wide variety of materials utilizing a very fine stream of high pressure (60,000 psi) water mixed with garnet abrasive. “Think of it as highly accelerated erosion” says Jantz president Robert Peto. “In nature water can eventually cut through solid rock. This machine utilized the same basic principle. Adding an abrasive to the stream and and increasing the pressure thousands of times lets the Flowjet do in seconds what nature would take thousands of years to accomplish.
Peto goes on to talk about the advantages of cutting with water. “For the past 7 years we’ve been doing all of our cutting on a Trumpf 2503 Laser. The laser is a fantastic tool for cutting mild and stainless sheet metal but it definitely has some limitations. It’s very difficult to get a 100% clean cut on stainless plate. It doesn’t cut aluminum well and cutting small diameter holes in thicker mild steel is very difficult due to the heat generated by the process. The heat of the laser also tends to case harden the edges of the material being cut making further machining, tapping or drilling a challenge. The waterjet takes care of all of these issues and more.
One of the things we are most excited about at Jantz is that now we will have the ability to cut plastics, non ferrous materials as well as very thick traditional materials. Our laser can cut a maximum thickness of 5/8″ mild steel. The Flow machine can accept material up to 6″ thick. We should have the machine up and running in less than a month and we can’t wait to offer our customers all that this machine can bring.”