While the extent and possibilities of water jet cutting are incredibly advanced now, the general process has been around for ages. It began as hydraulic mining, and this process was first used by the Roman Empire. When it first began, it was redirecting water streams to erode sections of ground for development. This idea can […]
Tag Archives: waterjet history
Waterjet Control
As waterjet cutting moved into traditional manufacturing shops, controlling the cutter reliably and accurately was essential. Early waterjet cutting systems adapted traditional systems such as mechanical pantographs and CNC systems based on John Parsons’ 1952 NC milling machine and running G-code. Challenges inherent to waterjet technology revealed the inadequacies of traditional G-Code, as accuracy depends […]
Abrasive Waterjet
While cutting with water is possible for soft materials, the addition of an abrasive turned the waterjet into a modern machining tool for all materials. This began in 1935 when the idea of adding an abrasive to the water stream was developed by Elmo Smith for the liquid abrasive blasting. Smith’s design was further refined by […]
History of Waterjet
While using high-pressure water for erosion dates back as far as the mid-1800s with hydraulic mining, it was not until the 1930s that narrow jets of water started to appear as an industrial cutting device. In 1933, the Paper Patents Company in Wisconsin developed a paper metering, cutting, and reeling machine that used a diagonally […]