WATERJET DESIGN & CUTTING:
Changing the Face Of The Stone Industry

This rapidly growing, in-demand technology has expanded the horizons of the stone industry with almost limitless possibilities for creating and/or enhancing stone installations.

Dimensional Stone, August 1995

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At face value, when it comes to stone installations and projects, waterjet design and cutting is simply another way to get the job done. But look further, and it's easy to see the virtually limitless potential of this rapidly growing, in-demand and exciting new technology. In that respect, it's not just another way; it's a better way. The efficiency, precision, speed of fabrication, as well as its ease of installation pegs the waterjet as a landmark technological breakthrough and achievement.

Water jet design and cutting can compare with some of the great developments of other industries - developments that brought expansion, efficiency and growth such as the locomotive, the cotton gin and the bandsaw.

Now, that's not to say that the wide variety of time-tested methods of stone cutting, designing and fabricating are being left behind. Rather, the waterjet serves not only to push the envelope of the stone industry, but to complement it as well.

HOW WATERJET DESIGN AND CUTTING WORKS

Waterjet cutting involves water pressurized to 55,000 pounds per square inch (psi), with an abrasive (usually garnet) entrained in the jet stream. The water is forced through a precision nozzle whose orifice is approximately 0.013" in diameter. The arm that the nozzle is attached to is robotic and driven by computer programming. What this means is that once an image is scanned and digitized, this process can cut the same programmed design in stone over and over again. In most cases, the cutting is so precise, that grout lines are almost invisible.

With the abrasive added to the water, the mixture traveling at more than three times the speed of sound quickly and precisely cuts hard materials such as stone, marble, ceramic tile, glass and metals up to 8" thick with an accuracy of +/0.005".

This capability to cut these materials on a single machine represents a key benefit of water jet cutting. Equipped with a waterjet, shops can fabricate floor coverings, countertops, monuments, signage and other architectural related projects.

Waterjet Design & Cutting - Continued