What are the advantages of water jet cutting machine for cutting rubber and plastic products?

Water-jet cutter (especially water-jet cutter with sand) is widely used in the cutting field of rubber and plastic products. Its core advantage stems from the principle of "cold cutting" and high flexibility, which can effectively solve the problems of deformation, melting and poor edge quality of rubber and plastic materials (such as rubber, plastic, sponge, silica gel, etc.) that are easy to occur in traditional cutting. The specific advantages can be developed from the dimensions of cutting quality, material adaptability, safety and economy, as follows:

1. Excellent cutting quality: no thermal damage, smooth and precise edge.

Rubber and plastic materials (especially thermoplastics and soft rubber) are sensitive to temperature, and traditional cutting methods (such as laser, blade and sawing) are easy to cause material performance damage due to high temperature or mechanical pressure, but the "cold cutting" characteristics of water jet perfectly avoid this problem:

HAZ: The water jet cuts through the physical erosion of high-pressure water flow (containing abrasive), and no heat is generated in the whole process, which will not lead to melting, coking, discoloration or internal structure degradation of rubber and plastic materials (such as plastic embrittlement due to high temperature and rubber aging due to heat). For example, when cutting PVC plastic board, there is no "edge sticking" and "blackening" on the edge, and when cutting silicone sealing ring, there is no thermal shrinkage deformation on the section.

Smooth edge, no need for secondary processing: after cutting, the section of rubber and plastic products is flat, burr-free and flash-free, and there is no need for subsequent polishing, trimming and other processes, which directly meets the assembly or appearance requirements. Especially suitable for products that require high edge accuracy (such as rubber seals and plastic precision parts).

High cutting accuracy: the cutting accuracy of the sand-adding water knife can reach ±0.1mm, and the cutting trajectory is stable, which can accurately restore the complex shapes of design drawings (such as special-shaped holes and curved contours), and is suitable for customized cutting of rubber and plastic products (such as special-shaped rubber and plastic fittings for automobiles and silicone catheters for medical use).

Second, the material has strong adaptability: it is compatible with all types of rubber and plastic, and there is no thickness limit.

The shape, hardness and density of rubber and plastic products are very different (such as soft sponge, hard engineering plastic, elastic rubber, foamed plastic, etc.), so the water jet cutting machine can be compatible with almost all types of rubber and plastic materials without changing tools or adjusting complex parameters;

Unlimited material hardness/elasticity: Whether it is high-hardness nylon, POM (polyoxymethylene) plastic, natural rubber or EVA foam with strong elasticity, the water jet can achieve efficient cutting by adjusting the water pressure (10-40MPa) and the amount of abrasive (such as garnet sand), and will not cause "rebound deviation" due to material elasticity (such as the blade is easy to slip and run when cutting soft rubber).

Unlimited material thickness: ultra-thin plastic film with a thickness of 0.1mm can be cut to thick rubber blocks and foam plates with a thickness of more than 100mm, and it can be formed at one time without layered cutting. For example, when cutting a large rubber-plastic cushion, a complete section can be obtained directly without splicing.

No material "selectivity" restriction: it is also applicable to composite rubber and plastic materials containing fibers and fillers (such as rubber conveyor belts and glass fiber reinforced plastics), and will not cause cutting fracture or edge delamination due to uneven internal components of the materials.

3. Flexible cutting: give consideration to complex shapes and mass production.

Rubber and plastic products often need customized design (such as special-shaped seals and multi-cavity plastic parts). The numerical control characteristics of water jet make it have high cutting flexibility and meet the needs of small batch customization and mass production.

Seamless cutting of complex graphics: With the help of numerical control system (such as CAD/CAM linkage), arbitrary 2D graphics can be cut, including round holes, square holes, curves, sharp corners, nested internal and external contours, and even customized rubber and plastic products (such as disposable silicone fittings for medical use) without mold cost.

High efficiency of mass production: CNC system supports automatic typesetting, which can intensively typeset and cut a number of small-sized rubber and plastic parts on a sheet, greatly improving the material utilization rate (compared with traditional blade cutting, the material utilization rate can be increased by 10%-20%); At the same time, it supports continuous operation and is suitable for efficient delivery of large quantities of orders.

Quick die change: when cutting products, only new design drawings need to be called in the system, and there is no need to adjust the mechanical structure or change the tool. The die change time is short (usually completed in a few minutes), especially suitable for multi-variety and small-batch rubber and plastic production scenes.

Fourth, high safety: no dust, no harmful gas and friendly operation.

When cutting rubber and plastic materials, traditional methods (such as sawing and laser) are easy to produce dust (such as plastic dust) and harmful gases (such as hydrogen chloride gas produced by laser cutting PVC), which have health and safety hazards, but water jet cutting completely avoids these problems:

No dust pollution: during the cutting process, the water flow and abrasive will directly take away the cutting debris, which will not produce suspended dust, protect the respiratory system of operators and avoid dust pollution to workshop equipment.

No harmful gas/smoke: there is no high-temperature combustion or chemical reaction in the whole process, and no harmful gas (such as VOCs decomposed by plastics at high temperature) will be generated, which meets the requirements of environmental protection and does not require additional waste gas treatment equipment.

Safe operation: the cutting head of the water jet has a safety protection device, and the high-pressure water flow only acts in the cutting area, so there is no risk of blade exposure or laser radiation, which reduces the probability of operation accidents.

5. Good economy: low long-term cost and simple maintenance.

Although the initial equipment investment of water jet cutting machine is higher than that of traditional blade cutting machine, its comprehensive cost is lower in long-term use, which is especially suitable for large-scale production of rubber and plastic enterprises:

Material cost reduction: high typesetting utilization rate reduces the waste of rubber and plastic materials, especially for high-value rubber and plastic materials (such as silica gel and engineering plastics), which can significantly reduce the cost of raw materials.

Low maintenance cost: the core components of the water jet (such as high-pressure pump and cutting head) have a long service life (under normal maintenance, the service life of the high-pressure pump can reach 5000-10000 hours), and the maintenance only needs to replace the wearing parts such as seals and filter elements regularly without complicated mechanical debugging; Compared with lens replacement of laser cutting machine and sharpening of cutter of blade cutting machine, the maintenance cost is lower.

Mold-free cost: For customized or small-batch rubber and plastic products, it is not necessary to develop special molds, and the product development cycle can be greatly shortened (from design to sample delivery can be shortened to 1-2 days), thus reducing R&D investment.

Summary: the core value of water jet cutting rubber and plastic products

Through the combined advantages of "cold cutting+high flexibility+high safety", the water jet cutting machine solves the core pain points (thermal damage, poor edge and weak material adaptability) of rubber and plastic materials in traditional cutting, and is especially suitable for rubber and plastic scenes that require high cutting accuracy and edge quality, or need customization and multi-variety production (such as automobile rubber and plastic parts, medical silicone products, plastic parts in electronic industry, etc.), which is efficient and precise in the current rubber and plastic processing field.