Tag Archives: waterjet history

In the 1930s, Russia made the first “waterjet” attempt at cutting the rock with the pressurized water. This water cannon could generate a pressure of 7000 Bars.

A Brief History on Water Jet Cutting

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 […]

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 […]

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