Alkire: It used to be you'd need three technicians to watch the pump, two to watch the nozzle, one to hold the hose and who knows what. Now, we go with an operator that does the programming and that's it. We turn it on and let it run the whole show and never worry about it. So it's really come a long way.

Aalto: I remember six or seven years ago, I’d know if it was going to be a good day if, as I was approaching the factory, I could hear the waterjets running, I’d say to myself, "now that's a good day!" (laughter)

Alkire: you know it was those industries that waterjet became involved in where you just couldn't afford to stop the machines that really forced us to come up with a reliable pump. Then on the other side. The paser technology developed when we moved from kind of the exotic aerospace applications into the job-shop people, the production people, the metals people and on into the stone people where they needed to cut and couldn't afford to stop. That just basically forced the industry to come up with new technology to keep up with that demand.

Gannon: I really believe that with the development of the abrasive waterjet as a tool and the other technologies like CAD and CAM that accompany it, we are right on the leading edge of probably the first giant opportunity to apply automation and technology to actual architectural fabrication. As I tell people, a waterjet is the damnedest milling machine/band saw/table saw set up into one complete package with state-of-the-art input that I’ve ever seen.

Roundtable Conference: Waterjet Technology - Continued

Continued from

Aalto: I assume foam is a big industry.

Alkire: Yes, it is, but nothing compared to the automotive at this point.

Gannon: I might mention as well that at the abrasive waterjet conference in Seattle, about three years ago, they showed what considered to be the first application of waterjetting. A professor filled a howitzer cannon with water, put a full charge in and blew it off. It was quite impressive.

Campbell: Better not to try that method with stone, though. (laughter) Aalto: this company that I acquired eight or nine years ago has been in existence about 13 years, and I remember even when I first got in it, you were lucky to keep your machine running for two or three hours and you were lucky to get one or two hours out of your nozzle. So technologically, the waterjet machines and the nozzles and all kinds of different technical things have really developed and made it a viable business concern-which it really wasn't as short as seven or eight years ago.

Alkire: The first abrasive jet head that came on the market was a flow patent and we brought out the first abrasive jet head commercially. That was done in 1985; so abrasive jet cutting is relatively new. But you're absolutely right, Harri, when we would go to a trade show.

Aalto: You'd have to have a pocket full of nozzles with you 'cause you knew they were going to go out on you. (laughter)