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Laser or water jet cut .020" thick aluminum sheet ???

Lock 45

Plastic
Joined
Feb 4, 2016
I was thinking of having some 5052-H32 .020" thick aluminum sheet laser cut into small shapes but my buddy said to go with abrasive water jet cutting. He says that laser leaves a molten edge but water leaves a clean cut edge. Thus no tumbling to finish. The parts will eventually be formed, holes punched and then nickel plated. The only real accuracy needed will be in the punched holes which has nothing to do with the water jet cutting. The cut shape can be +/- .002" with no problem.

It seems that multiple layers of stock can be jet cut. This may leave some fine abrasive between the layers but that will not be a problem. The economy in cutting multiple layers seems attractive.

Any comments on water jet cutting thin aluminum stock? I am curious about how wide the kerf will be but I imagine different machines, running different sized nozzles, are out there.

If any of you have had any water jet parts cut out of thin stock aluminum and you were pleased with the result, could you recommend a shop? I would be glad to give them a call.

Thanks in advance.

Dan Miller
 
Water jet application.

the Trouble with thin material is that it moves around and part is not true size, i used to cut thin material by stacking it and bolting it between 8mm ply and then cut the lot at one go, works out okay most of the time.
Kerf it not a issue on thin items but size is as the abrasive can cut wider than normal if nozzle is high.

If they are small in size you will have to tab them so they don't get lost in the tank, but expect to loose a few anyway.

Small items are generally difficult in the waterjet. price will be not much cheaper as setup takes more time. Cut time will be under 2 min for a small batch but it may take 20 min to cut the board drill the holes mount it beforehand.
IF you do the mounting it may save setup, if its done correctly and does not need to be redone.

The tolerance you quote also may mean the offset may need to be played with i.e. you do a sample measure it then adjust accordingly it wastes material but the only way i know of even then its pretty tight tolerance for thin items.
Abrasive on thin as stated before can cut wider as it really doesn't take much to cut something so thin.

conclusion possible but in the difficult to cut category.
 
I think waterjet is a step in the wrong direction with this application. Laser is going to be cheaper, faster, and leave a better edge if it's dialed in correctly. If the edge on material that thin is coming out rough, get the laser guy to make sure everything on his end is good. We cut 1/4" aluminum on the lasers with zero dross and a nice, semi-sharp edge. Lasers can be affected a lot by a dirty lense, bad tip or bad parameters. They might just need to dial the parameters in for that material and a lot of the time the laser manufacturer has good parameters to go with.
 
Sounds like there's no reason to have those waterjet cut. A laser is going to most likely be cheaper/faster. You will most likely have a sharp edge with either method that you may want to run a sanding sponge or something over.
 
For a small run of small, complex shapes in thin stock one can use photo etching. Aluminum is nicely etched in an alkaline solution leaving clean and precise edges. I did it successfully with a thinner (about 0.008) aluminum stock but should work with thicker material and some testing beforehand.
 
You will have some taper with a water jet. Trying to hold +/-.002" is probably asking a little too much, especially if stacking material. I would no quote that job. +/-.005" is realistic.
 
Your buddy is misinformed or perhaps only used old machines or incorrect settings on a laser. A newer fiber laser will cut that with no burr at 2000+ ipm.
 








 
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