The quality of water jet cutting of selected construction materials

The article presents examinations of the quality of water jet cutting process four different construction materials. The study was conducted on selected materials: aluminium alloy (AlCu4MgSi), brass (CuZn37), stainless steel (X5CrNi18-10) and non-alloy steel (S235JR). All these materials had the same thickness of 10mm. Sample geometry has been designed to be able to obtain five different surfaces and slit. During the water jet cutting process parameters were being changed to obtain five surfaces and to compare parameters. The water jet cutting process for this tests was carried out on one-head waterjet machine produced by PTV, designed for 2D and 3D cutting. Quality of all surfaces of samples was then evaluated including: surface roughness, deviation perpendicularity, bevel angle, the width of the cut and the bore. Because there are no standard describing quality tests of water jet cut surfaces, during this study standard ISO 9013:2017 for thermal cutting process was used. Basing on this standard tests of surface roughness and perpendicular deviation or slanting of cut edges were made. The other parameters were tested for information only. In this article results of this test were presented. Quality of surfaces, possibility of using this cutting method for tested construction materials were analysed. The test results have shown usability of water jet cutting process for 10mm thick aluminum alloy AlCu4MgSi, brass CuZn37, stainless steel X5CrNi18-10 and non-alloy steel S235JR. The surface quality obtained after cutting compared to construction materials is sufficient and profitable in Q3 average quality. For the better quality, of course better results, but the cost of cutting increases significantly. Therefore, the details can be cut at a lower quality, and then subjected to further mechanical processing, which is less expensive.