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Waterjet cut bottle openers
Waterjet cutting bottle openers from American material, made in Ohio. We cut the material in Windfall, and send to Tipton Indiana to get color printing added.
These useful waterjets find their way into processes
It makes you wonder how we ever 'got by' before waterjet cutting existed. Its such a time saver for aerospace materials (tough and subject to heat affect zone) and other tooling materials. Most people think of the waterjet for thin and thick items, primarily metals/glass/rubber and making a near net 2D part. Cut quality is good, clean and very repeatable. We also see much less relaxation of materials going through this process (compared to plasma).
We have been using it for rough machining large amounts of material from blocks to attain a shape closer to the finished size. How do you do this with a 2D machine, don't you need a 5 axis machine to do 3D parts? We do have a 5 axis machine, but it is whats called a 'Dynamic' unit. Dynamic is a limited 5 axis of motion (X,Y&Z, plus A+B). It helps to offset the kerf angle you would get from the stream. In the Flow machine world, a full 5 axis unit it is called an XD type head.
We have been using various fixtures to orient the part to the head and get the machine to work more like a mill, carving out sections rather than having to mill it all away. This extra operation saves us hours and tons of tooling later on the mill. Would an XD machine do this? Yes it would, but the angle capability of the XD shrinks the capacity of the table. We have a good size table for a Dynamic unit, but with an XD head, safety requires that the travel be limited to keep the jet safely within the tank. You do not want to cut through the side of the tank.
We have been using it for rough machining large amounts of material from blocks to attain a shape closer to the finished size. How do you do this with a 2D machine, don't you need a 5 axis machine to do 3D parts? We do have a 5 axis machine, but it is whats called a 'Dynamic' unit. Dynamic is a limited 5 axis of motion (X,Y&Z, plus A+B). It helps to offset the kerf angle you would get from the stream. In the Flow machine world, a full 5 axis unit it is called an XD type head.
We have been using various fixtures to orient the part to the head and get the machine to work more like a mill, carving out sections rather than having to mill it all away. This extra operation saves us hours and tons of tooling later on the mill. Would an XD machine do this? Yes it would, but the angle capability of the XD shrinks the capacity of the table. We have a good size table for a Dynamic unit, but with an XD head, safety requires that the travel be limited to keep the jet safely within the tank. You do not want to cut through the side of the tank.
The focus of Hoosier Waterjet is cutting items for customers
The division of High Performance Alloys known as Hoosier Waterjet was created to focus on cutting items for local customers. Specifically focusing on cutting customers materials to their exacting requirements.
Waterjet cutting, as it became more widely used also became harder to buy time on a machine. Our experience was that it may take 3-4 days to get into a schedule. While that is sometimes acceptable, we were sending items to Pennsylvania and New York to have the work performed. This only added to the time needed to complete an order. As our own needs for waterjet cutting diminished, the solution was to bring the capability in house. We offer services to the midwest and great lakes region.
Why the new name for the service? It helps to separate the known customers from the customers that would not think of High Performance Alloys to cut aluminum, copper, steel, vinyl or rubber. We also cut glass, stone and tile. What the machine can handle is basically endless from 4 inch thick stainless to materials only a few thousandths thick.
What sets Hoosier Waterjet apart from other cutting houses?
Waterjet cutting, as it became more widely used also became harder to buy time on a machine. Our experience was that it may take 3-4 days to get into a schedule. While that is sometimes acceptable, we were sending items to Pennsylvania and New York to have the work performed. This only added to the time needed to complete an order. As our own needs for waterjet cutting diminished, the solution was to bring the capability in house. We offer services to the midwest and great lakes region.
Why the new name for the service? It helps to separate the known customers from the customers that would not think of High Performance Alloys to cut aluminum, copper, steel, vinyl or rubber. We also cut glass, stone and tile. What the machine can handle is basically endless from 4 inch thick stainless to materials only a few thousandths thick.
What sets Hoosier Waterjet apart from other cutting houses?
- Shipping within the midwest is very reasonable compared to shipping to a coast or over mountains.
- We are an ISO 9001:2008 registered corporation, which means we have a good quality system in place that has procedures in place for continuous improvement and oversight by management.
- Besides the familiarity of cutting metals, we have extensive experience cutting glass (just not tempered glass) and natural products. Variable pressures and vacuum assist help to ensure that the cut is performed in the best way possible to reduce breakage and limit scrap generation.
- We only run one shift normally, which means there are two shifts of capacity that can be utilized at any time to quickly cut your order, and cut it quickly.
- We invite the customer to be involved with the process, to ensure that they are getting the part in the most cost effective way. We can help to reduce processes operations and increase overall dimensional compatibility with mating parts.
A Few “Must-Knows” About Our Company
Hoosier WaterJet is a division of High Performance Alloys, located in Windfall Indiana. If you were to call us today, the phone will be answered by a High Performance employee so please do not be confused. High Performance Alloys (HPAlloy) is a small family owned company, serving the aerospace, nuclear, marine, chemical and petroleum industries since 1984. We needed to get the message out to the public about the new capabilities of the company, and so a division was born to serve that purpose. The one main difference between the divisions is that Hoosier WaterJet (HWJ) will cut just about anything, from wood, paper, carpet, tile, marble and granite, plastics, metals of all types, laminates, glass and rubber; you name it - we can probably cut it.
What sets us apart from the other waterjet or aquajet companies? We offer quick service, low setup costs and a keen eye for how to cut your part the quickest way possible to meet your needs. This cutting as a service business model is very dependent upon locality. Before we bought our own unit, we used waterjet houses in New York and Pennsylvania for many years. The costs were reasonable, but the shipping costs, time in transit coupled along with the work backlog at these other houses ended up being too much. Our business model has always been to take care of our customers needs quickly. Turn times of 2 to 3 weeks was just not going to cut it anymore, so we took a leap into CNC and CAD/CAM with FLOW. FLOW is a very good company to get started with, and a great technical service team. It's one decision we have not regretted making. Adding waterjet cutting has increased our customer's loyalty and satisfaction.
How can you cut faster than other companies? While we have a minor drawback in the pressure of our jets being 60KSI vs the now popular 80KSI, we have less maintenance on the units - which means greater uptime. We utilize the software that FLOW provides, which allows assigning cut speeds to the parts. Not just one cut speed, but it can have many cut speeds in the part - all dependent upon how critical or close tolerance the area is to the overall design or the follow-on processes that will mate with the particular cut region. This makes a huge difference in the overall success of cutting quickly and in cooperation of the following processes the part will go through when we are finished with it.
We operate two FLOW waterjets of 60KSI water pressure, a Mach3 and a Mach2. The Mach3 is a dynamic head unit on a flying bridge, which is actually a limited 5 axis capability. This dynamic head allows us to compensate or tilt the head for the thickness material we are cutting. The tilting action greatly reduces the angle of the edge, providing a very perpendicular edge cut. This helps to reduce or eliminate further finishing required on edges. Table size is 2 meters by 4 meters, or 78" x 156". The Mach2 is a gantry style unit with a standard head. The angle of the cut is relative to the cutting speed of the head. The slower the head travels, the straighter or more perpendicular the edge will be. Table size is 2 meters by 3 meters, or 78" x 118".
What sets us apart from the other waterjet or aquajet companies? We offer quick service, low setup costs and a keen eye for how to cut your part the quickest way possible to meet your needs. This cutting as a service business model is very dependent upon locality. Before we bought our own unit, we used waterjet houses in New York and Pennsylvania for many years. The costs were reasonable, but the shipping costs, time in transit coupled along with the work backlog at these other houses ended up being too much. Our business model has always been to take care of our customers needs quickly. Turn times of 2 to 3 weeks was just not going to cut it anymore, so we took a leap into CNC and CAD/CAM with FLOW. FLOW is a very good company to get started with, and a great technical service team. It's one decision we have not regretted making. Adding waterjet cutting has increased our customer's loyalty and satisfaction.
How can you cut faster than other companies? While we have a minor drawback in the pressure of our jets being 60KSI vs the now popular 80KSI, we have less maintenance on the units - which means greater uptime. We utilize the software that FLOW provides, which allows assigning cut speeds to the parts. Not just one cut speed, but it can have many cut speeds in the part - all dependent upon how critical or close tolerance the area is to the overall design or the follow-on processes that will mate with the particular cut region. This makes a huge difference in the overall success of cutting quickly and in cooperation of the following processes the part will go through when we are finished with it.
We operate two FLOW waterjets of 60KSI water pressure, a Mach3 and a Mach2. The Mach3 is a dynamic head unit on a flying bridge, which is actually a limited 5 axis capability. This dynamic head allows us to compensate or tilt the head for the thickness material we are cutting. The tilting action greatly reduces the angle of the edge, providing a very perpendicular edge cut. This helps to reduce or eliminate further finishing required on edges. Table size is 2 meters by 4 meters, or 78" x 156". The Mach2 is a gantry style unit with a standard head. The angle of the cut is relative to the cutting speed of the head. The slower the head travels, the straighter or more perpendicular the edge will be. Table size is 2 meters by 3 meters, or 78" x 118".
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