WaterJet Cutting Costs

Hey all,

I have to cut baout 3000 circles out of a 1/2"x4'x4' 15-3-3-3 Ti plate.

Can anyone tell me about how much something like this would cost via waterjet? educated guesses are fine!

Thanks much!

Nick

[This message has been edited by SLOEIT (edited 06-25-2004).]

A waterjet place can tell you real fast. They charge by the inch and by material thickness and type. Thin stuff cuts faster etc.

The big cost of a waterjet system is abrasive use.

You might be better off getting a rod and sawing if the you want disks. If you are putting 3000 holes in a 4'x4' piece just drill them. Both of these approaches are cheaper than waterjet I would bet.

If the circles are what you are after,why don't you start with a rod of the right diameter and part them off?
Jim W.

You might also find a manufacturer of perfferated plate.Unless I'm mistaken they roll punch this plate and that leaves the disks as a by-product.

15-3-3-3 Ti round stock is not manufactured anymore.

Current method under consideration is to buy an ingot, and send it to england (Cheapest place) and have it drawn. This will run us 20k. Or we are thinking of having our own mill run$$$...

Cant saw, needs to be fairly precise (only about .030" to be taken off after waterjetting.

Nick

And what is the secret diameter of these disks?
Unless you must have domestic material, what about these people?

http://www.ec21.com/co/e/evered/product.html?grp=1&cid=CA00278964

Les

I suggest you have a few samples cut. Waterjet is amazingly precise, but you still get some draft and a starter hole. Lots of guys around, I know 3 job shops around here, CNY that can do that.

"The big cost of a waterjet system is abrasive use."

How many ruby tips have you bought Cass? They used to be about $140 ea. That was 6 years ago when I was buying them.

Sloeit,
When you do contact a waterjet place, be specific on how the material is handled. If you furnish the material, you keep the scrap.

JR

Contact Omax, Flow or Jet waterjet manufactures directly for timing on cutting speed, they can/will arrange for local demo's so you can verify.
You can possiably pick up a used small bed size model, 2' x 4' (will accept a 4' x 4')for possiably less than $17 per hole, thats a guestimate of used machine cost and number of holes to be cut, get the write off and do it in house.
Ti, mill run, England...your already talking a chunk of change.

how about a casting? just a wild idea

sounds right but I would still test to make sure you have the right amount of material left to clean off the part. sometimes you see a small amount of ripple on the edge like a laser cut. I have had 2" cold rolled steel cut in intricate shapes for holding fixtues that we then rebored to most precise holes up to our tollerences and it worked well, but you can see how there are some variations.

The new Flow head that minimises draft does so by having the head tilt to counteract the draft angle. The problem with this, of course, is normally the head stays in the same relationship to the material as it goes around. In this new machine, the head angle must change as it speeds up and slows down, goes around corners, cuts different thicknesses and different materials, etc. Part of the draft problem is that the jet shape is somewhat coneshaped, due to declining force the farther away it gets from the nozzle. So, thicker material, more draft.
This new machine has an interactive sensing circuit in the controls, as I understand it, that is constanly adjusting head angle to minimise draft. The downside is that it puts double the draft on the outside of the cut- so the scrap is pretty angled, and you cant use it to cut puzzle piece style, where you use both pieces you cut out. I have had this done before with flooring- where I give them two colors, waterjet cut it out, and switch parts to get a contrasting pattern. Wont work witth the new, improved machines.

I think waterjet in general would be a good way to go for your titanium, and it probably would be the cheapest way. But waterjet prices vary regionally- in my area, the state pen- thats right, the prison- has a waterjet shop, run by inmates, and they undercut everybody elses prices. Needless to say, the local waterjet companies are PO'ed. They complain that their business taxes are being used to fund a competitor, whose labor costs are exempt from all the laws they have to obey, such as minimum wage.
I doubt that buying your own machine would be worth it, unless you have a pretty good ongoing volume. Even a used machine is over 50 grand, and the consumables do add up, as has been mentioned. I suppose if you were going into the waterjet job shop biz, it would make sense, but then you would want a bigger, newer machine, (like all cnc machines, they get obsolete fast) and then you are talking more like 200 grand.