The new machine’s very high precision water jet has a diameter of less than 300 microns, and can cut at up to 4,000 mm per minute.

Machine builder MDC Max Daetwyler AG and water-jet specialist Waterjet AG have teamed with, in collaboration with process control experts NUM to develop a CNC-based water jet-cutting machine capable of cutting materials to within ±1 micron – said to be 20 times more accurate than comparable water jet machines. The new WOMAJET/microWATERJET machine is also particularly efficient, consuming considerably less water and abrasives than traditional systems. The developers expect the machine to establish new functional applications for water jet technology.

Many specialty materials used increasingly in fabrication react poorly to heat during machining. Using water-jet cutting ensures that the material structure is unaffected by the heat, and is effective on wide range of material types, so long as they are not water soluble. This was the impetus for MDC Max Daetwyler, Waterjet and NUM chose to combine their expertise to jointly develop a water jet cutting machine specifically for precision materials processing.

The WOMAJET/microWATERJET cut biocompatible materials, Kevlar, carbon-fiber and fiberglass materials, and specialty materials and laminates.

They indicate that their WOMAJET/microWATERJET machine offers fabricators and manufacturers a “stable, precise and repeatable” process capable of complex contour cuts: it will handle land widths as narrow as 20 microns (0.02 mm).

The machine’s central feature is a very high precision water jet, with a diameter of less than 300 microns, that can cut materials at a rate of up to 4,000 mm per minute. All three of the machine’s axes are driven by NUMDrive C servos that have a very high power density, which helps minimize the size of the control cabinet. Overall control of the machine is handled by a NUM Flexium CNC system, equipped with a NUM FS152i HMI for operator input commands.

The WOMAJET/microWATERJET machine uses NUM servos and a NUM Flexium CNC system to ensure precision cutting.

The WOMAJET/microWATERJET will cut a wide range of materials, including biocompatible materials for medical applications, Kevlar, carbon-fiber and fiberglass materials (such as lightweight auto body materials), and specialty materials and laminates such as are common in aircraft and aerospace industries. For each of these, the developers assert that “all cutting operations are performed with no degradation to the materials’ characteristics or properties.”