SUBMAR’s Innovative Approach to Overcoming Challenges in Cutting Complex Structures
Abrasive waterjet cutting has great capabilities but also some serious challenges. Cutting a sandwich structure with water layers between the steel layers is such one.
At SUBMAR, we have been focusing on this for several years. And with results!
There is plenty of cutting power, but it is easily lost in the space between two plates, especially if that space is filled with water. Metal bridges then form in the second or subsequent plate, or the cutting simply stops altogether. Cutting then becomes sandblasting….
The question for us was: How can we keep the cutting jet together? Fire brigades have the same problem. If it’s damn hot and you have to stay far away as a firefighter, how does your extinguishing jet still get into the fire?
Finally, we found solutions in the study of the flight of cannonballs.
“What makes Rolls-Royce the best car in the world? There is really no magic about it – it is merely patient attention to detail, says an eminent Rolls-Royce engineer.”
Why is it that a cannon in the 18th century shot a mile away and today a modern cannon hits 20-mile distant target with ease? Is that just ‘power’ or is there more? Yes, there is more, much more. We at SUBMAR translated the answers to those questions into the flight of abrasive particles in a cutting jet. And that has been a success.
For an important client, we accepted the order to cut through a sandwich structure under water consisting of a 70 mm thick steel wall, then 50 mm water and then 60 mm steel again. And that at the highest possible speed and without bridges. We tackled this challenge by applying our insights of the flight of the cannonball to the new design of the cutting head. And that was a bingo!
Last week, it was time to perform a demo in our test tank. The maximum cutting speed we achieved was over 2 metres per hour. We do not offend anyone when we state that everyone was impressed. See the evidence for yourself below.
Meanwhile, we are scaling up to three, four and five layers. To be continued!
VIDEO’S
