• Abrasive waterjets can cut virtually any material, including glass and reflective materials, and a wide range of material thicknesses.
• Abrasive waterjet machining is a cold cutting process and creates no heat-affected zones (HAZ), therefore it doesn't change the material properties or leave heat-hardened edges.
• Set-up for cutting jobs on abrasive waterjets is quick and easy.
• Multiples of the same part can be cut at one time from different types of material simply by stacking the various sheets of material on the waterjet.
• No harmful vapors are emitted with abrasive waterjet cutting.
• A waterjet’s cutting tool never gets dull.

Waterjet vs. Laser - Laser generally can only cut material that is up to 1½ inches thick. Waterjet can cut most materials at 12 inches thick, sometimes even thicker. Reflective materials such as aluminum, bronze and copper are difficult and sometimes even impossible to cut with laser. Waterjet has no difficulty cutting materials with reflective properties. Laser cutting leaves a heat-hardened edge that is problematic when doing secondary operations. When rough cutting parts with a laser and then finishing them on a CNC mill, that heat-hardened edge has to be removed which wastes material and slows down the finishing process. With waterjet cutting, there's no heat-affected zone (HAZ), maximizing material usage and making secondary operations like tapping and beveling much easier than if cut with a heat process.

Waterjet vs. Plasma - While plasma cutting is typically faster than waterjet cutting, the cut edge quality of waterjet is far superior. Plasma cutting leaves a rough edge that usually requires some clean-up. Waterjet can do a much more precise cut than plasma, often eliminating the need for any edge clean-up. Since plasma cutting works by melting the material, it's not a good option for materials that don't melt easily, such as granite, or for materials that are destroyed by melting, such as laminates. Waterjet is a cold cutting process with no heat-affected zone (HAZ), and does not change the material properties.

Waterjet vs. Wire EDM - Waterjet cutting is 5-10 times faster than wire EDM cutting. Abrasive waterjets can cut virtually any material, but wire EDM is limited to conductive materials. Both processes cut with high precision.

Cut edge qualities range from Q1 to Q5. Q1 is the fastest cut and is used primarily for material separation. Depending on edge finish requirements, slower cutting speeds of Q2 through to Q5 are selected. Parts requiring close tolerance geometry will of course require smoother edge finishes in that area of the part. (Note: Some other terms also used in the industry to indicate cut speed or edge quality include 100%, 80%, 60%, 40%, and 20% or Fastest, Medium Fast, Normal, Better, and Best.)

Q1 Q5

Depending on what the cut pieces will be used for, your cuts may require different edge qualities. The Edge Quality directly affects the cost of the job, because it requires more or less time depending on the edge quality chosen. You could ask two different companies for quotes to cut the same piece, out of the same material, and get two vastly different quotes because of the edge qualities. When getting quotes on waterjet cutting, always ask what edge quality you were quoted at. Requesting a small sample part, like the one shown below, will help determine your requirements and also be an example of what you can expect on your parts.

Customer Name
Company Name (if applicable)
Customer Contact Info (i.e., email and/or phone number)
A clean DXF or DWG file (i.e., no title block, no duplicate entities, and properly scaled). Alternatively, a brief description of simple parts will work (e.g., O.D. & I.D. for washers, O.D. for discs, or LxW for rectangles). A PDF showing part dimensions would also be helpful (if available)
Material required (e.g., ½” A36/44W Mild Steel or 1/8” Aluminum 5052 – scratch free)
Quantity of parts required
Edge quality required (from worst to best – Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, or Q5)
Level of accuracy required (e.g., all parts must have a tolerance of ±0.003”)
Post-processing requirements (e.g., deburring)
Any other special requirements (e.g., labeled parts, package parts separately, or part protection required)