The management at the Logistic Center was impressed with the new system's efficiency, accuracy, speed, finish, flexibility and versatility, and reliability. In addition, they appreciated Water Jet Sweden's operator training and after-sales service, including the on-going supply of materials, replacement of worn parts, and future technological upgrades. (At Dortmund, the consumption of abrasive used in water-jet cutting of very hard materials totals to 1 metric ton/day.)

ThyssenKrupp Materials chose the WJS NC 3560 DL, with a 6-m long cutting table to achieve maximum profile lengths, and linear drives. The main advantages of these features are that they require virtually no maintenance, have the ability to move the two cutting heads independently in the X direction, accurate cutting to within 0.05 mm, and positioning speeds of up to 30 meters/min.

The NC 3560 DL also incorporates the advanced Siemens 840D CNC system, especially adapted for Water Jet Sweden machines.

Wastewater cleaning

One design feature of this installation that's particularly valued by ThyssenKrupp Materials is a special wastewater cleaning system, capable of cleaning 3,200 liters/day of wastewater prior to discharge into the drainage system.

According Marcus Raback: “The advantages of water-jet cutting over other methods go further than the first, obvious one of cold cutting. Laser and plasma cutting are only suitable to a limited extent for machining aluminum and titanium, and due to insufficient up-time capacity and expensive running cost they are not quite ideal. Water-jet cutting up-time capacity of 90% is outstanding.”

Raback stated that ThyssenKrupp Materials expects that its customers also will benefit from its use of water-jet cutting. “Many of them now, when placing their orders, specify that we use water-jet cutting in our processing preparation work before delivery. Advantages they appreciate are the beneficial effect of the cold cutting of the water jet on the material, accuracy, superior finish, absence of burred edges, and elimination of added preparation work, which previously they had to do for themselves.”

OMAX Unveils New Line of Abrasive Water-Jet Machines

OMAX Corp. is introducing a new line of abrasive water-jet machines that will appeal to operations where affordability is a guiding factor in the choice of equipment. It describes the MAXIEM line as machines that incorporate its proven technology for high-pressure cutting in an affordable, highly productive package.

“Through years of marketing the OMAX line of JetMachining Centers, we recognized the strong demand for a line of basic abrasive water-jet equipment,” OMAX CEO Dr. John Cheung explained. “With the new MAXIEM line, we meet this demand, as well as the varying performance needs required by the international community.”

MAXIEM will be a separate brand from the current OMAX offerings, with a different market profile in terms of cost and function.

“As water-jet technology has evolved, the precision and accuracy of OMAX machines has moved beyond the point of what some manufacturers require,” detailed Dr. John Olsen, co-founder and vice president of operations for OMAX. He described MAXIEM as an “entry-level line of abrasive water jets,” and one that is well timed to the financial concerns of the machine shop market.

The targeted MAXIEM users will be fabrication shops, metal service centers, trade schools, and job shops. OMAX further identifies shops that specialize in architectural work, signs, stone, and gaskets, or any operation that processes large parts or multiple parts from large stock, including metal, plastic, glass, ceramics, stone and composites.

The first machine to be available will be the 1530MX. It will have a 1.5×3-meter table size; a smaller, 1.5×1.5-meter version (MAXIEM 1515) will be introduced in the coming months, and other sizes will follow. All MAXIEM designs will have OMAX Intelli-TRAX™ traction-drive technology (developed to perform in the abrasive atmosphere) in the X-Y axis, and a motorized Z axis. The 50,000-psi pumps will be offered in 20 and 30 horsepower options.

The OMAX Intelli-MAX Basic control package will power the MAXIEM machines, including its proprietary control software.