Process	Water jet cutting
	Water jet cutting cuts a wide range of materials. A major benefit is that no heat is introduced and following no burning of surfaces or thermal distortions. Other benefits are minimum material loss, no environmental polution and the possibility of cutting in 3 dimensions using robots. Limitations are that the material gets wet and that the process is less suited for brittle materials. Through a nozzle a jet of water under very high pressure (up to 400 MPa) is directed into the material which is eroded away. Abrasive particles can be added to the water thus improving the the performance. Feedrates are between 5 and 500 mm/s.
Danish Name	Vandstråleskæring
Category	Reducing processes, Cutting
Materials	Metals Ceramics Plastics Composites Textiles
Typical products	Gasket Pizza (food) Fiberglass insulation mats Marple floor Titanium structure
Competing processes	Laser beam cutting
References	Flow International Corporation Hydromann as
Price notes	Medium cost investments (equipment). Variable cost is mainly energy. Labour cost are low since CNC-controled automatic equipment is normally used.
Environmen- tal notes	Use: Working environment problems from dust, noise and emmisions are minimal.
Keywords	Sheet cutting Free form curves
Photo	Thomas Nissen (Computer graphics)
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