Water Jet Sweden (WJS), one of Europe’s biggest manufacturers of water jet cutting machines, has launched a new micro cutting feature for its waterjet machines.

To cut narrow incisions in hard materials with high precision requires a specially developed waterjet cutting process. FAWJ stands for Fine Abrasive Water Jet (micro waterjet, finecut), and is a unique and world-class cutting process launched back in 2008 by Water Jet Sweden. Since then, the technique has been applied to a specially developed precision machinery, designed to manufacture micro-components, WJS said in a statement.

Now the company broadens the possibilities and launched the FAWJ micro head package for their ordinary machine models. “It is designed for customers who wish to cut fine parts with narrow incisions and high precision, without the need for the most extreme micro part tolerances,” the company said.

UNIQUE TECHNOLOGY

The FAWJ cutting process can cut as narrow as 0.2 mm

FAWJ technique requires a special cutting head and is a waterjet cutting process suitable for very fine abrasives so metals and other hard materials could be processed with incisions as thin as 0.2 mm. The cutting process has all the advantages that water jet cutting means. It is simple and versatile, with a very smooth surface that requires no or very little post-processing, and there is no influence of the material constituent. The FAWJ technology also allows users to cut quite thick materials.

EXTREME PRECISION

Water Jet Sweden’s machine model `Micro’ (NCM 10) is specially developed for the FAWJ-process and is used for manufacturing of micro components. A popular alternative to Micro-EDM and Laser, it is a machine system based on Water Jet Sweden’s patented Gantry design and has a number of unique features for cutting with tolerances less than ± 0.01 mm. Some examples are the cutting table which is made of epoxy concrete, a material that also is used for measuring machines. The machine’s positioning is determined by a micrometer scale from Renishaw, an invar scale that has a precision of 1 nm.

FOR FINE CUTS

The FAWJ cutting process can cut as narrow as 0.2 mm, compared to traditional waterjet for which the incision normally is 0.8 to 1.0 mm. A growing number of customers around the world have seen new opportunities with the FAWJ cutting process, and there has been a growing demand for FAWJ-cutting in general. Therefore Water Jet Sweden has launched an upgrade package: The FAWJ Micro head package. It can be used on their regular machine models, X-series and Premium, which both have the size of cutting tables (1 x1 to 4 x 2 metre) and a CNC control system that can handle the delicate sand feeding.