Introduction
Water cutting, also known as water jet, is a high-pressure water jet cutting technology. It is a machine that uses high-pressure water flow to cut. Under computer control, the workpiece can be carved arbitrarily, and is less affected by the texture of the material. Water cutting is divided into two methods: sand-free cutting and sand-added cutting.
Details
laser cutting
Laser cutting uses a focused high-power density laser beam to irradiate the workpiece, causing the irradiated material to quickly melt, vaporize, ablate or reach the ignition point. At the same time, the molten material is blown away by the high-speed airflow coaxial with the beam, thereby cutting the workpiece. open. Nowadays, CO2 pulse laser is generally used, and laser cutting is one of the thermal cutting methods.
Water cutting
Water cutting, also known as water jet, is a high-pressure water jet cutting technology. It is a machine that uses high-pressure water flow to cut. Under computer control, the workpiece can be carved arbitrarily, and is less affected by the texture of the material. Water cutting is divided into two methods: sand-free cutting and sand-added cutting.
plasma cutting
Plasma arc cutting is a processing method that uses the heat of a high-temperature plasma arc to partially melt (and evaporate) the metal at the incision of the workpiece, and uses the momentum of high-speed plasma to remove the molten metal to form the incision.
wire cutting
Wire Electrical Discharge Machining (WEDM for short) belongs to the category of electrical machining. Wire Electrical Discharge Machining (WEDM for short) is sometimes also called wire cutting. Wire cutting can be divided into fast wire cutting, medium wire cutting, and slow wire cutting. The wire traveling speed of fast wire EDM is 6~12m/s, and the electrode wire moves back and forth at high speed, resulting in poor cutting accuracy. Medium wire EDM is a new technology developed in recent years that realizes frequency conversion multiple cutting functions on the basis of fast wire EDM. The wire walking speed of slow wire EDM is 0.2m/s, the electrode wire moves in one direction at low speed, and the cutting accuracy is very high.
Application scope comparison:
Laser cutting machines have a wide range of applications. They can cut both metals and non-metals. CO2 laser cutting machines can be used to cut non-metals, such as cloth and leather, and fiber laser cutting machines can be used to cut metals. The plate has little deformation.
Water cutting is a cold cutting process with no thermal deformation and good cutting surface quality. It does not require secondary processing and can be easily processed if necessary. Water cutting can punch holes and cut any material, with fast cutting speed and flexible processing size.
Plasma cutting machines can be used to cut various metal materials such as stainless steel, aluminum, copper, cast iron, and carbon steel. Plasma cutting has obvious thermal effects, low precision, and the cutting surface is not easy to undergo secondary processing.
Wire cutting can only cut conductive materials, and cutting coolant is required during the cutting process. Therefore, it cannot cut materials that are not conductive, are afraid of water, and are afraid of being contaminated by cutting coolant, such as paper and leather.
Cutting thickness comparison:
The industrial application of laser cutting carbon steel is generally below 20MM. The cutting capacity is generally below 40MM. Stainless steel industrial applications are generally below 16MM, and cutting capabilities are generally below 25MM. Moreover, as the thickness of the workpiece increases, the cutting speed decreases significantly.
The thickness of water cutting can be very thick, 0.8-100MM, or even thicker materials.
Plasma cutting thickness is 0-120mm, and the best cutting quality range is around 20mm. The plasma system has the highest cost performance.
The thickness of wire cutting is generally 40~60 mm, and the maximum thickness can be up to 600 mm.
Cutting speed comparison:
Use a 1200W laser to cut a 2mm thick mild steel plate at a cutting speed of up to 600cm/min; to cut a 5mm thick polypropylene resin plate at a cutting speed of up to 1200cm/min. The cutting efficiency that wire EDM can achieve is generally 20~60 square millimeters/minute, and can reach up to 300 square millimeters/minute; obviously, laser cutting speed is fast and can be used for mass production.
The speed of water cutting is quite slow and is not suitable for mass production.
The cutting speed of plasma cutting is slow and the relative accuracy is low. It is more suitable for cutting thick plates, but the end face has a slope.
For metal processing, wire cutting has higher precision, but the speed is very slow. Sometimes it is necessary to use other methods to pierce and thread wires before cutting, and the cutting size is greatly limited.
Cutting accuracy comparison:
The laser cutting incision is narrow, both sides of the slit are parallel and perpendicular to the surface, and the dimensional accuracy of the cut parts can reach ±0.2mm.
Plasma can reach within 1mm;
Water cutting will not produce thermal deformation, and the accuracy is ±0.1mm. If a dynamic waterjet machine is used, the cutting accuracy can be improved, and the cutting accuracy can reach ±0.02mm, eliminating the cutting slope.
The accuracy of wire cutting processing is generally ±0.01~±0.02 mm, and the highest can be ±0.004 mm.
Slit width comparison:
Compared with plasma cutting, laser cutting is more precise and the slit is smaller, about 0.5mm.
Plasma cutting slits are larger than laser cutting, about 1-2mm;
The slit of water cutting is about 10% larger than the diameter of the knife tube, generally 0.8mm-1.2mm. As the diameter of the sand cutter tube expands, the cut becomes larger.
The slit width of wire cutting is the smallest, generally around 0.1-0.2mm.
